Taiwan Vice President William Lai elected as chairman of ruling party
William Lai
William Lai, the vice president of Taiwan, was elected as the new chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Sunday (January 15).
The election was held over a month after President Tsai Ing-wen stepped down as DPP chairperson. She quit after the party’s defeats in the local elections.
Lai ran unopposed and the win has set the stage for him to run for the presidential elections early next year. He had pledged to unite the party and to "polish its image as an honest, diligent and grassroots party".
Sidney Lin, the interim secretary-general of DPP, told a news conference last night that Lai was elected with 99.65 per cent of the votes.
As quoted by local media outlets, Lin mentioned that Lai won 41,840 votes and the turnout rate was 17.59 per cent. Lin also said that the turnout was slightly higher than the 16.9 per cent in the previous chairperson election in 2019.
After the election, Lai said in a statement that he would "go all-in to undertake the mission" given to him and further added that his objective is to win back the trust of the people and unite the party.
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He will formally assume the role on Wednesday. Lai is a former premier and mayor of the southern city of Tainan. He has been Tsai's vice president since 2020 following the DPP's landslide election win.
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