President Ma elected KMT chairman

They also elected delegates to a party national congress scheduled for September 12 where Ma will be sworn in to succeed Wu Poh-hsiung. Wo replaced him in 2007 when he quit as Kuomintang chairman after he had been indicted for corruption, charged with misappropriating his expenses while he was mayor of Taipei.

Turnout was 57.79 percent, despite an all-out effort on the part of Wu and other party leaders to get more members to vote for the president.

Ma won 285,354 out of the 308,462 votes cast. Altogether 17,619 votes were invalidated. The Kuomintang has a membership of 534,739.

The low turnout was attributed to a no-show of the party's largest voting bloc, the Huang Fu-hsing Council. All its members are servicemen on active duty or retired.

The veterans, in particular, do not like President Ma's China policy, though they are all mainlanders like Ma.

Ma told a press conference after the election, reiterating his determination to reform the ruling party and get the administration to work more closely with the legislative branch of the government.

It is not important whether he won a large majority vote in the election, Ma said. He won a 92.51 percent majority.

“I sought the party leadership not to expand my power but only to promote administration-party cooperation for ensuring a better governing,” Ma pointed out.

Ma voted at the poll at the Tsing Hsin Elementary School at 8:20 a.m. He was accompanied by Wu, whom he thanked profusely for helping his election.

Wu retires instead of seeking re-election as Kuomintang chairman.

Asked whether Hu Jintao, general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, would congratulate him on his election, Ma said he believes his Chinese counterpart would.

Hu, who doubles as president, congratulated Wu and Lien Chan, when they were elected Kuomintang chairman.

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