SHE had led in the opinion polls for Taiwan’s presidential election for months. Yet the margin of Tsai Ing-wen’s victory surprised many. She won 56% of the votes in a three-way race, with her chief contender, Eric Chu of the Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), trailing badly (see chart). Ms Tsai will become the island’s first female leader, while Mr Chu has already resigned as party chairman.
The outcome of the election to Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan, was more striking still. Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won 68 of the 113 seats up for grabs, compared with only 35 for the KMT, which has lost its hold on the legislature for the first time since Chiang Kai-shek set up on the island in 1949. The KMT is now in the wilderness even if Ma Ying-jeou, president since 2008, limps on until Ms Tsai’s inauguration in faraway May.
Already, change is under way. An old guard of...Continue reading
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