Taiwan premier resigns over party defeat at polls

TAIPEI:Taiwan’s premier resigned Saturday after the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party suffered a landslide defeat at the island’s biggest ever local elections.
Jiang Yi-huah announced that he had stepped down at a brief press conference, saying that he took “political responsibility” for the party’s heavy losses—unofficial results showed the KMT had lost in five out of Taiwan’s six municipalities.
Meanwhile: An independent candidate backed by Taiwan’s opposition, pro-independence party Saturday claimed victory in local elections as the next mayor of Taipei, breaking the ruling party’s 16-year hold on the island’s capital, according to a news agency.