Taiwan’s incumbent leader Tsai Ing-wen has won Saturday’s presidential election, defeating her Beijing-friendly rival Han Kuo-yu by a wide margin.
“Taiwan is showing the world how much we cherish our free and democratic way of life,” Tsai told supporters at 9pm as she confirmed her victory.
A jubilant crowd of supporters outside the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters in Taipei burst into cheers as Tsai appeared on stage to address reporters.
Tsai has polled comfortably ahead of her main contender Han, of the Kuomintang Party, since voting closed at 4pm on Saturday.
With 8.1 million votes as of 10:30pm, Tsai won the highest number of votes of any presidential candidate in Taiwan’s history of democratic elections.
Han, on the other hand, received just over 5.5 million votes, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Explainer: President Tsai Ing-wen faces mainland-friendly challenger Han Kuo-yu as Taiwan heads to the polls. »