All candidates for the post of head of the Taiwan administration voted in the elections

 All three candidates for the post of head of Taiwan voted on January 13 at polling stations in different cities of the island. TVBS News reported this.

Polling stations for general elections in Taiwan were open from 8:00 to 16:00 (from 3:00 to 11:00 Moscow time). To date, all polling stations have been closed and ballot counting has begun.

There is no second round in the election of the head of administration. The election results should be known on the same day, late in the evening. The inauguration of the winner of the vote is scheduled for May 20, 2024.

Lai Qingde, a pro-independence candidate from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, voted at a polling station in the city of Tainan, where he was mayor from 2010 to 2017. He is the favorite of the race. Xiao Meiqin is running in tandem with him as a candidate for deputy head of administration; she cast her vote at the polling station in Xinbei.

The candidate from the opposition Kuomintang party, who advocates the gradual normalization of relations with China, and the representative of the Taiwan People's Party, Ke Wenzhe, who advocates dialogue with everyone and maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, also took part in the vote.

Earlier, on January 11, the Chinese Foreign Ministry , against the backdrop of Washington’s statements about sending an “unofficial delegation” to Taiwan after the elections, demanded that the United States not interfere in processes in Taiwan. Chinese diplomats recommended that the United States not send any signals to “pro-independence separatist forces on the island.”

Prior to this, on December 31, Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his New Year's address to the nation, stated that the reunification of China and Taiwan is historically inevitable. He also noted that "compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should unite and share the great glory of national rejuvenation."

The conflict between China and Taiwan escalated following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island in August 2022. The Chinese side considers Taiwan its territory, and therefore views visits to the island by officials from other countries as support for Taiwan's independence.

Sino-Taiwanese relations broke down in 1949, when military and political leader Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters fled to Taiwan and established a government in exile there. Business and informal contacts between the island and the PRC resumed in the late 1980s. Since the early 1990s, the parties began to communicate through non-governmental organizations.

In Beijing's view, Taiwanese compatriots should choose to return to cross-strait relations by reuniting with China. In turn, the current President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, said that the course in relations with Beijing should be determined by the will of the people.