Tsai Wins Taiwan’s Presidency, Captures Legislature in Landslide
- Opposition chief elected as island's first female leader
- China policy, stagnant economy sapped support for KMT
Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan's president-elect, center, waves to supporters after delivering her victory speech in Taipei.
Photographer: Maurice Tsai/BloombergTaiwan opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen rode a tide of discontent over everything from China ties to economic growth to become the island’s first female president and secure a historic legislative majority for her Democratic Progressive Party.
Tsai, 59, a former law professor, won 56 percent of the vote to 31 percent for the ruling Kuomintang’s Eric Chu. Her victory margin was the biggest since Taiwan’s first democratic presidential election two decades ago. The DPP won 68 seats in the 113-seat legislature, gaining its first ever majority and locking the KMT out of power for the first time since since Chiang Kai-shek fled with his government across the Taiwan Strait in 1949.