IRIA News

William Lai Ching-te from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wins the island’s historic presidential elections with 40.05 percent votes, securing a record third term for his pro-independence party.

Lai, Taiwan’s former representative to the United States, was serving as the island’s vice president under the former ruler, Tsai Ing-wen. He was in a race for the presidential office with Kuomintang’s (KMT) Hou Yu-ih and Ko Wen-je, the former mayor of Taipei and presidential candidate for the newly formed Taiwan People’s Party.

With a 70% turnout, some 19.5 million voters from the self-governed island used their right of self-determination on January 13, 2024. After the final counting of the votes from all polling stations, it was determined that Lai’s DPP received 40.5% of the total votes, providing him a substantial lead over Hou, whose party KMT managed to secure 33.5% of the total votes. TPP’s Ko Wen-je received 26.4% of the votes.

In his concession speech, Hou apologized for “not working hard enough” to regain power for the KMT, which ran Taiwan under martial law for nearly four decades before democratic reforms in the 1980s. “I let everyone down. I am here to express my sincerest apologies, I’m sorry,” Hou said in front of an audience whose numbers fell well short of expectations.

KMT loses presidential race but wins majority seats in parliament

For the first time since 2004, no party has emerged to control an evident majority in Taiwan’s 113 sets strong parliament called the Legislative Yuan. After the latest elections, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won only 51 seats, a significant drop from its previously held 62 parliamentary seats. The Kuomintang (KMT) won 52, and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) won 8 seats. To have a commanding majority, a party needs at least 57 seats in the parliament.

In terms of presidential office, Taiwan’s electoral system is based on first-past-the-post voting, awarding the victory to the presidential and vice-presidential pairing with the highest percentage of votes. Lai was running along with Hsiao Bi-Khim as his vice-presidential candidate. Hsiao, the daughter of an American mother and Taiwanese father, was also serving as Taiwan’s representative to the United States before declaring her run as the vice president.

By winning an unprecedented third consecutive presidential term for his party, Lai, a 64-year-old doctor-turned-politician, has broken new ground. In his first remarks after his opponents conceded, he signaled that this was an irreversible trajectory.

“The country will continue to walk on the right path forward. We will not turn around or look backward,” Lai told the world’s media in a press conference shortly after his evident success was confirmed.

While addressing the crowd in his victory speech on the street in Taipei, Lai said “We’ve done it. We didn’t let external forces influence our election. That’s because we decided that only we can choose our president,” he said. In the lead-up to the polls, Taiwan had accused China of attempting to interfere with the process.

What does it mean for China and the US?

Taiwan’s election took place at a time of growing geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington. The elections carry an outsized importance for China and the U.S. because of the territory’s disputed status. Although Taiwan has been a self-governed island since the 1940s, China claims Taiwan and its outlying territories and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its ambitions.

Washington maintains ‘strategic ambiguity’ about the island’s independent status by supporting the One-China policy. However, the U.S. proclaimed that it would support Taiwan if China exerted military or political influence on the self-governed island.

Lai, who is closer to Washington like his predecessor, has been denounced by Beijing as a dangerous separatist. China had called on the people of Taiwan to make the right choice while noting the “extreme harm of the DPP’s ‘Taiwan independence’ line”.

Following Lai’s victory, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office struck a gentler tone without mentioning him by name, saying that the results reveal that the DPP “cannot represent the mainstream public opinion” on Taiwan.

“Our stance on resolving the Taiwan question and realizing national reunification remains consistent, and our determination is as firm as rock,” it said.

It added China will work with “relevant political parties, groups, and people” from Taiwan to boost exchanges and cooperation, and “advance the peaceful development of cross-strait relations as well as the cause of national reunification”.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the island’s “robust democratic system and electoral process”. In a statement, he said Washington is “committed to maintaining cross-strait peace and stability”. Earlier President Joe Biden told reporters the U.S. “does not support independence” for Taiwan.