Presidential voting begins in Taiwan

By Anadolu staff

Taiwan’s presidential election voting, a contest between three candidates, including Vice President William Lai Ching-te, began Saturday.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time and will remain open until 4 p.m.

A total of 17,794 polling stations have been set up across the island where 19.54 million registered voters will cast votes

The island’s eighth presidential election is being viewed as one of the most consequential in recent history.

Voters in the island nation of 24 million people will vote for president and vice president and local legislators.

Taiwan's Legislative Assembly has 113 seats, serving four-year terms, 73 of which will be decided Saturday, six are reserved for indigenous candidates, while the remaining 34 will be picked by proportional representation.

Vice President William Lai Ching-te from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is running against the opposition Kuomintang’s Hou Yu-ih and TaiwanPeople’s Party (TPP) nominee Ko Wen-je.

Under the DPP, Taiwan has seen more engagement with Western nations led by the US, much to the chagrin of Beijing.

Kuomintang, or Nationalist, on the other hand, has campaigned for more engagement with Beijing.

Taiwan began holding its first direct presidential elections in 1996 and the last two elections saw turnouts of 74.9% in 2020 and 66.27% in 2016.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid