Ma Ying-jeou, the candidate representing Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT), won the island's leadership election on Saturday, according to Taiwan media reports.

Ma, former KMT party chairman, and Vincent Siew, got 7.6587 million ballots, or 58.45 percent of the votes, whereas Frank Hsieh of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and his running mate Su Tseng-chang got 5.4452 million ballots, or 41.55 percent of the votes.

Taiwan residents began voting in the leadership election at 8 a.m., voting ended at 4 p.m.. Results are expected at 9.30 p.m. About 17.3 million people voted at 14,401 polling stations, said the Taiwan authority.

In January, the KMT won 81 of the 113 seats in Taiwan's "legislature" elections, scoring a landslide victory over the DPP, which got 27 seats.

'UN membership referendums' vetoed

Taiwan residents on Saturday vetoed "UN membership referendum" pursued by Chen Shui-bian authorities, according to results of the votes count on Saturday.

Only 35.8 percent, or less than half of voters in Taiwan cast their ballots on Saturday for the "UN membership referendum" under the name "Taiwan", proposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The percentage of vote turnout was only 35.7 for another "referendum", proposed by the Kuomintang (KMT), on whether the island should "return to the global body under any name". It was also rejected by voters.

Voting on the two proposed "referendums" was held simultaneously with the leadership poll.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 3008)