Taiwan President resigns as party leader after election loss

Taiwanese were picking their mayors, city council members and other local leaders in all 13 counties and in nine cities

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party following local election losses suffered by her party.

Ms. Tsai offered her resignation on Saturday evening, a tradition after a major loss, in a short speech in which she also thanked supporters. She said she will shoulder the responsibility as she had hand-picked candidates in Saturday's elections.

Voters in Taiwan overwhelmingly chose the opposition Nationalist party in several major races across the self-ruled island in an election Saturday in which lingering concerns about threats from China took a backseat to more local issues.

Chiang Wan-an, the Nationalist party's mayoral candidate, won the closely watched seat in capital Taipei.

“I will let the world see Taipei's greatness,” he said in his victory speech on Saturday night. Other Nationalist party candidates also won mayoral seats in Taoyuan, Taichung and New Taipei city.

Not all votes had been formally counted by the time of his speech, but Chiang and the other candidates' numerical lead allowed them to declare victory.

Kao Hung-an, a candidate in the relatively new Taiwan People's Party, won the mayoral seat in Hsinchu, a city home to many of Taiwan's semi-conductor companies.