presidential election

March 22, 2008
Taiwan’s Opposition Wins Poll, Heralding Boost for China Ties
By REUTERS
Filed at 7:15 a.m. ET
TAIPEI, March 22 (Reuters) - Taiwan's main opposition Nationalist Party declared victory in presidential elections on Saturday, heralding improved ties with giant neighbour China which claims the self-ruled island as its own.
Nationalist, or Kuomintang (KMT), candidate Ma Ying-jeou had won more than 7 million votes, the party said, more than half the total 13 million people who cast their ballot.
The Central Election Commission said that Ma had 58 percent of the vote, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's candidate Frank Hsieh had 42 percent, with counting almost complete.
"This has brought us a different tomorrow. The election result has really given us a new environment, new hope and a new future," the party's honorary chairman, Lien Chan, told a cheering crowd in downtown Taipei.
Party supporters let of firecrackers and fireworks, while DPP supporters shed tears.
Saturday's win comes after the Nationalists, who once ruled all China, clinched a more than two-thirds majority in legislative elections in January, giving them a clear mandate to push ahead with their policies to boost an economy which has lagged some of its Asian peers.
Ma favours closer economic ties and political dialogue with China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.
Voters had to choose a successor to President Chen Shui-bian, an anti-China firebrand who steps down in May and who has repeatedly angered Beijing with his pro-independence rhetoric.
China has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
Hsieh's DPP favours formal independence while Ma's Nationalist Party wants eventual reunification once China embraces democracy.
The election has drawn keen international attention, with the United States, Russia and Britain criticising a referendum on U.N. membership, to be held alongside the vote, which they believe could upset the delicate balance with China.
The result from the referendum is expected to be announced later in the evening.
Whatever the referendum result, U.N. membership is out of the question with just 23 countries recognising Taiwan, and with China a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, under a "one China" policy, but remains the island's main arms supplier and trading partner. Taiwan styles itself as the "Republic of China".
Two U.S. aircraft carriers are in the region for training exercises. China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait in 1996, trying to intimidate voters during an election.
The two candidates had toughened their stances on China following Beijing's crackdown in Tibet, but to help the economy, both advocate more direct flights, tourism and investment opportunities between Taiwan and China.
Ma advocates a common market with China.