Taiwan's major opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Monday accepted its chairwoman's resignation following her defeat in Saturday's leadership election.

The DPP approved Tsai Ing-wen's resignation at a provisional joint meeting of its central executive committee. Tsai's resignation will take effect on March 1.

Tsai told the meeting that she was "a lifelong DPP member" and would not leave the party.

In her concession speech Saturday night, Tsai, 55, said she would "shoulder the responsibility of the failure" and offered to resign as party chief.

Tsai's term as chairwoman will expire in May, but she upheld the DPP tradition of the party chief resigning after the party losing a major election.

A DPP spokesman said Tsai will analyze her failures, complete a report on DPP's continued reform and transformation, and tour around Taiwan to thank her supporters, before her resignation.

In the island's fifth leadership election since 1996, Tsai lost to incumbent Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou by a margin of nearly 6 percent, or 800,000 votes. Ma, 61, secured a second term in office.

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