Taiwan: pro-independence Lai wins, but his party does not win by a landslide
William Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has won Taiwan's presidential election, despite political pressure from China – which claims Taiwan as part of its territory – not to let him vote. Here are the electoral data
Lai, the current vice president, was in a three-way race with Hou Yu-ih of the conservative Kuomintang (KMT) and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which was only founded in 2019.
Lai won 40.2% of the votes cast, according to results from the Central Election Commission on Saturday.
Opponent Hou admitted defeat and congratulated Lai on his victory. He also apologized to KMT supporters for failing to eliminate the DPP. Ko also admitted defeat.
“I want to thank the Taiwanese people for writing a new chapter in our democracy,” Lai said in a victory speech in which he thanked his two opponents for conceding defeat. “We are telling the international community that between democracy and authoritarianism, we will stand on the side of democracy.”
He added that he hoped for a return to "healthy and orderly" trade with China, reiterating his desire for talks based on dignity and equality.
In reality, the victory of the DPP is only partial, because from the point of view of votes in the corresponding legislative elections there was a strong reduction in the number of votes in favor of the party that supported the winning new president:
It even seems that, in parliament, due to a game of remains, the DPP risks having fewer seats than those of the KMT
“The DPP does not represent the island's public opinion, Beijing said after Lai was named the winner of Saturday's vote,” Chinese authorities said, adding that the vote “will not hinder the inevitable trend of China's reunification.” . It must be said that the other parties have accepted Lai's victory, so, in any case, it is unlikely that Beijing will find support in Taiwan.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article Taiwan: the independentist Lai wins, but his party does not win by a landslide comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/taiwan-vince-lindipendentista-lai-ma-il-suo-partito-non-stravince/ on Sat, 13 Jan 2024 20:57:37 +0000.