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By Joseph Yeh
Staff Reporter
Opposition Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou Saturday won a landslide victory over his ruling Democratic Progressive Party rival Frank Hsieh in Taiwan's presidential election, with a significant margin of more than 2.2 million votes, which won him the bid to become the next president of the nation.
The victory wins back for the KMT the presidency it relinquished for 8 years as the party lost power to incumbent President Chen Shui-bian and his DPP in 2000 and 2004.
Ma and his running mate Vincent Siew garnered nearly 60 percent of all valid votes (58 percent), with 7,658,724 votes, while Hsieh earned only 42 percent with 5,445,239 votes.
"This is not a victory of myself or my party alone but the victory of all Taiwan's people," said Ma in his campaign headquarters downtown Taipei Saturday evening after he won the presidency.
"Millions of local people have spoken through the ballot, they urged a clean government not a corrupted one, a harmonious society not a self-conflicted one," said Ma, adding that that's why they decided to make a change.
Ma said he had heard all the Taiwan people's collective wish to change the administration, saying that he would take the heavy burden and responsibility given by the people of Taiwan, and stressing that he will carry out all the policies he proposed during the election.
He also added that the party had previously won a landslide victory in the legislative election in January. The presidential victory puts more pressure on the KMT to fulfill its mission to reform the nation as people have given full power to the party.
Ma pledged that his party will use its power cautiously instead of abusing it, to offer a better future to local people.
The KMT had previously taken all the seats in 15 of the 25 constituencies nationwide, or 81 of the 113 legislative seats, during January's election.
The new Taiwan president also did not forget to thank his opponent Hsieh and all the DPP supporters for their contributions to Taiwan's democracy during his victory remarks, adding that he will try to fulfill some of Hsieh's policies when he takes office.Ma concluded his remarks by saying that the election is only temporary, urging every Taiwanese to hold hands to bring back Taiwan's glory after the election, and asking the country to return to unity.
"The nightmare of the past eight years has gone, it's time for Taiwan to move forward again," said Ma's running mate Siew.
Siew pledged he will be a perfect partner for Ma and make use of his experience in economics to boost the local market in the next four years.
Later Ma said during an international press conference that he had not decided whether or not to visit China and other foreign countries prior to taking office on May 20 in answer to a question from local media.
Ma's large margin victory seemed to be more or less the same as poll results revealed less than a month earlier, as Ma's support rate had shown a significant lead with more than 15 to 20 percent then.
Hsieh camp's relentless criticisms on his KMT rival regarding his common market policy and green card issue, in addition to the Chinese government's recent crackdown on the uprising in Tibet, apparently did not damage Ma's significant lead.
rick yi, taiwan news
Kuomintang presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, center, and his running mate Vincent Siew, are seen celebrating their victory with KMT supporters in Taipei Saturday.
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