TAIPEI: Vice President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) declared victory in Taiwan’s presidential race on Saturday, garnering an unprecedented third consecutive term for his party, Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
With 99 per cent of the 17,795 polling stations reporting as of 8.40 pm Saturday, Lai had 5,543,447 votes, or 40.1 per cent, ahead of his two opponents, Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Ko Wen-je of the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), according to official Central Election Commission (CEC) vote counts.
Hou had 33.46 per cent and Ko had 26.44 per cent, the CEC figures showed.
The outcome of the election will not be confirmed until the results are officially announced by the Central Election Commission.
Lai’s victory gave the DPP a third straight term in power, the first time a political party has won three consecutive terms in Taiwan since it held its first direct presidential election in 1996. – Bernama, CNA
