Taiwan’s presidential candidate, whom China considers a “serious danger” because of his pro-independence stance, led the polls on Saturday, according to official partial results cited by France Presse. writes Agerpres.

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Earlier in the evening, incumbent Vice President Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had won 41.6% of the vote, according to these official results covering more than 60% of polling stations.

Lai Ching-te, 64, has been described by Beijing as a “grave danger” because his party claims the island is de facto independent.

His main opponent, 66-year-old Hou Yu Yi, a candidate from the Kuomintang (KMT), which favors rapprochement with Beijing, won 33.2% of the vote, according to the CEC’s calculations.

A third candidate, Ko Wen-jhe, 64, of the small Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which presents itself as anti-establishment, came third with 25.3%.

Taiwan also voted to renew the 113-seat parliament, where the PPP could lose its majority.

At approximately 18,000 polling stations, each ballot was shown and read aloud by tellers before being counted, a process open to the public.

Offices closed at 16:00 (10:00 in Romania) in the territory of 23 million inhabitants, located 180 kilometers from the coast of China and recognized as a model of democracy in Asia.

China has promised to “suppress” any desire for “independence”

All week, Beijing increased diplomatic and military pressure. On Thursday, five Chinese balloons crossed the median line separating the autonomous island from China, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, which also spotted ten aircraft and six warships.

On Saturday, AFP journalists spotted a Chinese fighter jet over the city of Pingtan, the closest to Taiwan.

And in the Chinese social network Weibo, the hashtag “Elections in Taiwan” was blocked in the morning.

Beijing called on the island’s electorate to make the “right choice”, and the Chinese army promised to “suppress” any desire for “independence”, according to AFP.

Taiwan’s status is one of the most explosive topics in the rivalry between China and the United States, the territory’s main military sponsor, and Washington plans to send an “unofficial delegation” to the island after the vote.

On Friday, the head of American diplomacy, Anthony Blinken, met in Washington with the head of the international department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Liu Jianchao.

He reminded her of the importance of “maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

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