The candidate for Taiwan’s presidential election decried by China as a “serious danger” because of his pro-independence positions is leading the vote on Saturday, according to partial official results.
At the start of the evening, outgoing vice-president Lai Ching-te, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was credited with 41.6% of the vote, according to these official results covering more than 60% of polling stations.
“Serious danger” according to China which claims the island
Lai Ching-te, 64, has been described by Beijing as a “serious danger” because his party claims that the island is de facto independent.
His main opponent Hou Yu-ih, 66, a Kuomintang (KMT) candidate who advocates rapprochement with Beijing, obtained 33.2% of the votes, according to this count from the Central Electoral Commission.
The third candidate, Ko Wen-je, 64, from the small Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and who presents himself as anti-establishment, was placed third with 25.3%.
The Taiwanese also voted to renew the 113 seats in Parliament, where the DPP could lose its majority.
Counting open to the public
In the approximately 18,000 polling stations, each ballot was held up high and read aloud by those responsible for counting – a process open to the public – before being counted.
Offices closed at 4 p.m. local time (8 a.m. in France) in this territory of 23 million inhabitants located 180 kilometers from the Chinese coast and hailed as a model of democracy in Asia.
746,000 people take the train to vote
“The more a party keeps its distance from China, the more I support it,” confided this Saturday a student who came to attend the DPP results evening.
“This does not mean that we should not have exchanges with China, but it should not affect our subjectivity,” added the young man, who only gave his last name, Huang.
According to a press release from the Taiwanese railway company, 746,000 people were expected to take the train today, most of them to return to vote in their hometown, which is more than in 2020 (around 704,000).
“Cherish our democracy”
This is the case of Yvonne, 31, who was leaving for Taichung (central-west) and said she was “not particularly worried about our relations with China, because none of the candidates dared to propose any radical measure” .
“Please go vote to show the vitality of Taiwanese democracy,” said Lai Ching-te before going to place his ballot in the ballot box in the gymnasium of a school in Tainan (south). “We should all cherish our democracy and vote with enthusiasm.”
Hou Yu-ih said he hoped that “whatever the turbulence that marked the electoral process, everyone will unite after the vote to face the future of Taiwan.”
Diplomatic and military pressure from China
All week, Beijing has increased its diplomatic and military pressure. On Thursday, five Chinese balloons crossed the median line separating the autonomous island from China, according to the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, which also spotted ten planes and six warships.
On Saturday, AFP journalists even observed a Chinese fighter plane over the town of Pingtan, the closest to Taiwan. And on the Chinese social network Weibo, the hashtag “Election in Taiwan” was blocked in the morning.
Beijing called on voters to make “the right choice” and the Chinese army promised to “crush” any desire for “independence”.