Taiwan premier Jiang Yi-huah quits after poll loss
29 November 2014 Last updated at 13:34
The Prime Minister of Taiwan, Jiang Yi-huah, has resigned after his ruling pro-China party suffered stiff defeats in local elections.
The Kuomintang party (KMT) appears to have lost control of districts across the country, including the mayor's office in the capital, Taipei.
My comments: Whoever is elected, as long as they are responsible, competent, compassionate, and have people on their minds, it's fine with me.
Saturday's polls were widely seen as a referendum on relations with China.
KMT supporters had argued for good relations with China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province.
China and Taiwan, a close US ally, have been ruled separately since the end of a civil war in 1949.
Analysis: Cindy Sui, BBC News, Taipei
In the past few years, the governing Kuomintang party has focused on reducing tensions with China and building closer economic ties. It has argued more economic and trade deals were needed to help Taiwan's economy grow.
Some people now fear that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) victory could help it win the 2016 presidential race and, if it won, it would change the course of China-Taiwan relations and potentially lead to a deterioration with Beijing.
The DPP favours Taiwan's formal independence from China and, despite its attempts to negotiate with Beijing, Chinese leaders have insisted it first accept that Taiwan is a part of the same China.
Bowing out
Mr Jiang told reporters he was stepping down in order to take responsibility for the defeat.
The race in the capital was watched with particular attention as a test of Ma Ying-jeou's pro-China policy.
In the event, an independent opposition-backed candidate, Ko Wen-je, claimed victory over the KMT's Sean Lien.
Mr Lien publicly bowed in defeat along with his solemn-faced supporters. "We congratulate Mr Ko," he said in his concession speech. "I'm sorry I didn't win this election."
My comments: Though defeated this time, Mr. Lien still has a chance to work as a statesman and serve the country, if he still wants to.
Lin Wen-chih, 48, a film producer who voted for Mr Ko, told AP: "We want to send the nationalists [KMT] a warning. Taiwan is an independent country. We don't want the nationalists to take measures that would have it eaten up [by China]."
More than 18 million eligible voters were registered to vote, choosing from among 20,000 candidates who were running for more than 11,000 positions.
Dependence fears
Some voters fear that if the KMT is allowed to continue building strong ties with China, Taiwan may become too economically dependent on the mainland and vulnerable to its pressures to reunify one day, the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei reports.
They distrust the KMT, regardless of whether the deals signed with Beijing are good for Taiwan, our correspondent says.
KMT supporters, on the other hand, feel that Taiwan needs good relations with its biggest trade partner to breathe new life into the island's ailing economy.
They feared a victory by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could cause relations with China and Taiwan's economy to regress, our correspondent says.
The DPP supports Taiwan's formal independence from China, something Beijing strongly opposes.
In 2016, Taiwan will hold the more important presidential and legislative polls.
Taiwan began allowing truly democratic elections - with opposition party candidates and universal suffrage - in the late 1980s.
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