TEHRAN, November 25 - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as chairwoman of the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) after it suffered a major electoral defeat on Saturday, losing two of the island's most important city posts in mayoral elections.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The results of the polls, being held just over a year before Taiwan's next presidential election, are likely to please China, which claims self-ruled and proudly democratic Taiwan as its own and has ramped up pressure on Tsai and her administration since she took office in 2016.
In the run-up to the elections, Tsai and her government said repeatedly that China was trying to sway voters with "political bullying" and "fake news", accusations that Beijing denied.
The DPP lost control of the mayoralties in Taiwan's second-most populous city Taichung and the key battleground of Kaohsiung in the south, which it held for two decades and played a central role in Taiwan's pro-democracy movement in the 1970s.
Both were won by the China-friendly opposition, the Kuomintang, which once ruled China before fleeing to Taiwan at the end of a civil war with the Communists in 1949.
Tsai said the DPP would reflect on the defeat, but she vowed to press on.
"Continuing reforms, freedom and democracy, and protecting the country's sovereignty are the mission that the DPP won't abandon," she told reporters.
She said she would not accept the resignation of her premier William Lai, who had offered to quit earlier in the evening.
Source: Reuters
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