Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party becomes the next president, defeating his opponents Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang and Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party. The victory represents an unprecedented democratic milestone: the first time a political party in Taiwan has won a third straight presidential election. However, the DPP lost its majority in the legislature, and no one party will have enough votes to rule by itself.
Voters returned the ruling DPP to power, a seeming endorsement of the party’s pledge to maintain Taiwan’s political independence. Both the KMT and TPP had vowed to engage more with Beijing.
