Presidential Election Kicks Off in Taiwan

Presidential election started on Saturday in Taiwan, with a female candidate from the pro-independence opposition party likely to win in the vote.

BEIJING (Sputnik) – Opinion polls project that opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen will unseat the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (Kuomintang, or KMT) Ma Ying-jeou.

Tsai Ing-wen, who has pledged to maintain Taiwan’s status quo of de-facto independence, is running against the ruling party’s candidate Eric Chu.

Taiwan became self-governed in the 1940s after a civil war but China still considers it part of its territory.

In November 2015, a historic meeting was held between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese head Ma Ying-jeou.

However, director of the Chinese State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office warned in December that China’s relations with Taiwan are headed toward "complicated changes" in 2016.