Taiwan's president resigns as party president after local elections turnaround | News from the world

By Yimou Lee and Jess Macy Yu

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after suffering a major electoral defeat on Saturday, losing two of the city's most important posts municipal elections.

The results of the polls, which are taking place a little over a year before the next presidential election in Taiwan, should please China, which claims Taiwan's autonomy and democratic pride, and has intensified the pressure on Tsai and his administration since taking office. in 2016.

In the run-up to the elections, Tsai and his government repeatedly said that China was trying to persuade voters of "political bullying" and "false information," accusations denied by Beijing.

The PDP lost control of the Taichung City Halls, the second most populous city in Taiwan, and the main Kaohsiung battlefield in the south of the country, which it occupied for two decades and played a central role in the movement for democracy in Taiwan in the 1970s.

Both parties were won by the Chinese-friendly opposition, the Kuomintang, which ruled China before fleeing to Taiwan at the end of a civil war with the communists in 1949.

Tsai said the PDP would reflect on the defeat, but she vowed to continue.

"The pursuit of reforms, freedom and democracy, and the protection of the country's sovereignty are the mission that the PDP will not abandon," she told reporters.

She said she would not accept the resignation of her prime minister, William Lai, who had offered to resign earlier in the evening.

However, the PDP held firm in two of its other bastions, guarding Tainan in the south and Taoyuan in the north.

The PDP controls only six cities and counties in Taiwan, compared to at least 15 in the Kuomintang.

"This is a tragic defeat for the PDP," Yao Chia-wen, a senior adviser to the president, told Reuters.

"But it's not a support of the people in Kuomintang, it's the people's disappointment with the PDP," he said, citing slower-than-expected initiatives that prompted criticism, including pension and justice reforms.

There were still votes in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, where outgoing mayor Ko Wen-I is independent and rivals Ting Shou-chung of the Kuomintang, and the PDP is third.

Han Kuo-yu, the Kuomintang's elected mayor of Kaohsiung, who described the city as "outmoded and poor" during the election campaign, told a rally that he would do everything possible to boost his economy.

"We must immediately roll up our sleeves and get to work," said Han, speaking of what was once one of the busiest ports in the world, but which has lost much of its business in China. .

Beijing did not react immediately to the election results. The state media simply noted Tsai's resignation as party president "to assume responsibility for the party's performance in local elections in Taiwan".

A spokesman for the US State Department praised Taiwan for "demonstrating the strength of its dynamic democratic system through successful elections."

Taiwanese TV channels reported high turnout, with some polling stations in parts of Taipei and Kaohsiung remaining open beyond 4:00 pm (08:00 GMT) when the polls closed.

Candidates moved across the island to shake hands and solicit votes. They organized noisy and colorful gatherings that became the hallmark of the dynamics of Taiwan's democracy, contrasting sharply with China, where the Communist Party tolerates no dissent.

Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have increased, with China organizing military exercises around the island and ripping off the reduced number of diplomatic allies in Taiwan.

Tsai's internal reform initiatives, from the island's labor law pension plan, have also been the subject of close scrutiny by voters.

Confidence in the government has faded in recent months after reforms overthrew the opposition and some supporters, who claimed that Mr. Tsai was kept out of the promises deficit reduction and pollution.

Tsai's challenge is underpinned by a series of public votes that were also held Saturday on the issue of whether to legalize same-sex marriage, an issue that has deeply divided Taiwan.

"It's a small step for me, but a big step for humanity," Chi Chia-wei, a gay rights activist who asked the Taiwan constitutional court to seize, told Reuters of the matter, told Reuters.

Tsai made little progress despite his campaign on a promise of marriage equality before the 2016 elections.

In its first decision in Asia, the Constitutional Court of Taiwan declared last May that same-sex couples had the right to marry legally, and set a two-year deadline for legalization.

Voters were also asked if the island would join the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 as Taiwan, rather than "Chinese Taipei" – the name was accepted as part of a compromise signed in 1981.

A vote to compete under a Taiwanese banner would further enthuse Beijing, which has never given up the use of force to bring the island under its control.

The results of the referendum votes may not be known before the early hours of Sunday morning, according to election officials.

(Additional report by Tyrone Siu in Kaohsiung, Cate Cadell in Beijing and David Brunnstrom in Washington, Ben Blanchard's writing, Michael Perry, Hugh Lawson and Helen Popper edition)

Copyright 2018 Thomson Reuters.