“I will honor my election promise and retire from politics,” a dejected Hsieh told his crying aides and supporters gathered in front of his campaign headquarters in Taipei.

“But I will not leave Taiwan, and will continue guarding Taiwan,” he said, as he conceded defeat to Kuomintang rival Ma Ying-jeou.

The DPP candidate promised to quit politics if he lost the election.

“We accept defeat. It’s my own defeat, it’s not the defeat of the Taiwanese people. Please don’t cry for me,” he said.

Hsieh left the crowd of supporters after making a short speech. But he later re-emerged inside the campaign headquarters to thank his aides.

Ma won a sweeping victory, garnering more than 7.6 million votes, or 58.45 percent, compared to Hsieh’s 5.4 million votes, or 41.55 percent.

Neither side had expected such a wide margin. Pre-election public opinion polls of the two parties had shown that Ma was leading by as many as 10 percentage points.

Hsieh hoped his supporters can calmly accept the election outcome, and turn themselves into a force for guarding Taiwan.

“I hope the rifts created (between opposition camps) during the election can be mended after the election, allowing the people to quickly live in trust,” he said.

Yeh Chu-lan, Hsieh’s campaign manager, said they sincerely accepted the outcome although it was not what they had expected.

“We haven’t achieved what we expected. We didn’t try hard enough,” said Yeh. “We will contemplate what really happened. We will shoulder the responsibility.”

Hsu Kuo-yung, another chief campaign aide of Hsieh’s, said the DPP had to apologize to the whole nation and all those who “support Taiwan.”

In Kaohsiung, DPP campaign officials said they accepted the defeat and respected voters’ choice, as they tried to clam tearful supporters, some of whom demanded a vote recount.

One of the officials, Huang Chao-huei, said it is time the nation united, and he believes the DPP can still be trusted by the people.

Huang said it is the biggest election defeat the DPP has suffered in 20 years, but the party and its supporters must not lose their sportsmanship.

It is the ruling party’s second blow in two months after the KMT took almost three fourths of the legislative seats in January.