The results of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) primary poll released earlier today (June 13) has shown that president Tsai Ing-wen clearly defeated her DPP opponent former premier William Lai by winning 35.67 percent of the vote over Lai's 27.48 percent, officially becoming the DPP's presidential candidate for the 2020 election.

In the constitutional history of Taiwan, it was unprecedented for a for a re-electing president to be confronted by an opponent from the same party.

After rounds of negotiation within the party, a conclusion has finally been made to conduct the primary through a telephone poll, which weighed landlines and mobile phones equally. This poll was equally unprecedented.

The poll was launched on June 10 and was completed last night with 15,000 valid responses collected. Tabulated at 10:30 a.m. this morning under the witness of the poll committee and representatives of both candidates, the results were confirmed and announced by DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai.

The DPP Central Executive Committee will meet on next Wednesday (June 19) to officially declare the party’s candidate for the January 2020 presidential election.

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