Taiwan president resigns as party head after election loss

Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, resigned from her position as leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), after loosing the local elections on Saturday.

In an election where more local issues took center stage, voters in Taiwan strongly supported the opposition Nationalist party in numerous key races.

Tsai talked many times about “opposing China and defending Taiwan” in the course of campaigning for her party. But Chen Shih-chung, who lost his battle for mayor of Taipei, only raised the issue of the Chinese Communist Party’s threat a few times before he quickly switched back to local issues as there was little interest.

Tsai signed her resignation on Saturday evening after the major loss, in a short speech in which she also thanked supporters.

“I must shoulder all the responsibility,” she said. “Faced with a result like this, there are many areas that we must deeply review.”