Taiwan has elected their first female president, Tsai Ing-wen. With 99 percent of the polling places reporting, Ms. Tsai, a member of the democratic Progressive Party, took 56 percent of the vote. Her main opponent, Eric Chu of the Nationalist party (KMT), had just 31 percent.
In her victory speech, said she’d would uphold relations with China, but also added that Beijing must respect Taiwan’s democracy.
“Thank you for helping the DPP stand up again and for trusting us to govern this country,” Tsai, 59, said in her victory address on Saturday night. “We will put political polarisation behind us and look forward to the arrival of a new era of politics in Taiwan.”
“The results today tell me the people want to see a government that is willing to listen to people, that is more transparent and accountable and a government that is more capable of leading us past our current challenges and taking care of those in need,” Ms. Tsai said.
Her success ends eight years of KMT rule, during which there has been an unprecedented thaw in relations between the self-ruled island and China.
Via The Guardian
