(dpa) - Taiwan's opposition front-runner, Ma Ying-jeou, was showing a strong lead over his ruling party rival Frank Hsieh in initial vote counting in the presidential election on Saturday.
Almost two hours after the polls closed, the popular Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) candidate garnered more than 6.7 million votes, far ahead of the 4.7 million votes received by his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) opponent.
Three of Taiwan's outlying island constituencies have already completed the vote count, with Ma leading in all three areas.
More than 75 per cent of Taiwan's 17.3 million eligible voters went to vote, according to a preliminary estimate by the Central Election Commission.