TAIPEI - Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu has won the Chinese Kuomintang party primary poll for next year's leadership election in Taiwan, the KMT announced on Monday.

Han gained 44.8 percent of the poll vote, the KMT said.

The KMT announced five candidates last month for the party primary of the 2020 leadership election. The others were Eric Chu, former mayor of New Taipei City, Chou Hsi-wei, former magistrate of Taipei county, Chang Ya-chung, president of the Sun Yat-sen School, and Terry Gou, Foxconn founder and chairman.

Gou got 28 percent of votes cast in the KMT's primary, which polls members of the public by telephone.

Candidates expressed their political views on television for three rounds, and the poll was conducted by five polling companies entrusted by the KMT.

The primary result will be submitted for approval at the KMT general congress. If approved, Han will face current Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, who is seeking reelection.

Han, 62, has enjoyed a stunning rise in the last two years, journeying from relative obscurity to his party's "presidential" candidate in a phenomenon that has been dubbed the "Han tide".

Han was a relative unknown until he seized the Kaohsiung mayoralty in local elections last year in a shock win. The southern city has long been a heartland for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

"Taiwan people have been living difficult lives in the past three years," he told reporters after the result was announced, urging his party to unite.

Gou had previously hinted he might run as an independent if he lost, a move that could split the KMT vote.

Xinhua - Afp