Voting has ended in Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections.
About 19 million voters voted between Vice President William Lai Ching-te of the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party, Chinese nationalist Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang, and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je of the minuscule Taiwan People’s Party to lead the country of 22.5 million for the next four years.
Current President Tsai Ing-wen is ineligible for re-election.
The high-speed train station in Banqiao, a suburb just outside the capital Taipei, was packed with people traveling home on Saturday morning to vote before the polls closed at 4 p.m. local time – there is no absentee or postal voting.
The result will be closely watched by China.
It has long regarded Taiwan as a renegade province and has sworn reunification. Beijing has up its military efforts, sending warplanes and ships close to the island almost daily.
It has stated that the election is a choice between “war and peace,” and that a victory for Lai, who is running on a platform of preserving Taiwan’s sovereignty, will bring Taiwan “ever closer to war and decline.”
Hou, Lai’s opponent, pledged greater contact with the mainland; Ko, too, desired greater interaction with China but emphasized that Taiwan’s democracy would not be compromised.
Although the island’s relationship across the Taiwan Strait looms in the election, polls have showed bread and butter issues like housing prices and stagnating wages are also on the ballot.
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