Taiwan revels in its young democracy as president-elect charts fresh course

On Sunday in Taipei, the sun rose.

The city’s parks and morning markets filled with people enjoying the unseasonable warmth, and the smell of the city’s inexplicably expensive coffees drifted through the laneways as scooters buzzed through the crowds of pedestrians and bicycles.

Twelve hours earlier an election watched by the world, framed as a choice between “war and peace” or “democracy and authoritarianism” with existential implications for the global order, came to an end. A winner was declared, a loser conceded, voters were either overjoyed or disappointed. China – the aggressor party in this situation – was predictably cranky. But that was it.

Related: Taiwan election: global leaders draw Beijing’s ire for congratulating new president

For some of the many Americans here, watching this presidential vote, 10 months ahead of their own, was inspiring but also a little painful. The global superpower which for so long has heralded itself as the leader of the democratic world is no longer the best example of it. For Taiwan’s 23.5 million people at the weekend, they proudly held that title.

The campaign was a boisterous, hyperpartisan, chaotic affair that inspired almost 72% of eligible voters to show up at the polls. Many of them also returned at the end of the day to watch the count, an extraordinarily transparent and analogue process involving volunteers holding each paper ballot up and shouting the voter’s choice to another worker who marked it down – in pencil – on an A3 sheet stuck to the wall with sticky tape. Thousands of others gathered outside party headquarters to hear the seats called in real time.

In Taipei it was hard to push through the heaving Democratic Progress party (DPP) crowd. Confetti rained down as it was announced that Lai Ching-te and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim had won.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) event in New Taipei city was sad from the start. Rows and rows of empty red stools, a small national flag hopefully placed on each one, sat empty. Journalists paced the ground, outnumbering the interviewees they were searching for.

Voters returned the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to presidential power but took away their majority in the legislature. A new third party, the Taiwan People’s party (TPP), split the opposition vote but also inspired a surge of idealistic youth to join its ranks.

For many voters, regardless of stripe, the biggest takeaway from the election is pride in the system itself. The small democracy won plaudits internationally its robust and transparent vote, despite efforts from China to influence the outcome and in marked contrast to Taiwan’s recent history of authoritarian rule.

Saturday’s vote was only the eighth time that Taiwanese citizens have chosen their own president in free elections. The KMT’s candidate, Hou You-yi, was praised for his swift concession on election night. He told a small crowd of disappointed supporters that he was “deeply sorry” for failing to win. “I respect the final choice of the voters. This is a democratic election, which means that the voters decide the election’s outcome. We need to face the voters and listen to them,” Hou said.

Some had backed him primarily because they thought it important that Taiwan’s government undergo a change in leadership. “It should be considered natural; every four years we should switch to a better government,” says Jerry Peng, who voted for Hou. But “I still want to congratulate the DPP, because they won some of the hearts in Taiwan. I hope that they can continue to do the right thing.” Such a sentiment would have been impossible in his father’s generation.

Across the political rallies, attendees shared their strong political opinions, but also encouraged the Guardian to speak to as many people as we could to get all perspectives.

“It has not been easy for us to get to where we are now,” 83-year-old Mr Song says at a pre-election rally, detailing the brutal history of Taiwan’s authoritarian era.

“We people work hard together. We have deep freedom. It is a holy land for freedom, Taiwan is very free.”

Government of many colours

Now the dust has settled, the hangovers have faded and the confetti has been cleared, political observers are mulling the implications.

In his acceptance speech Lai said the DPP had “not worked hard enough” to get a majority, and that Taiwan’s people “expect an effective government as well as strong checks and balances”.

He declared he would study the policies and positions of his opponents and that they would be incorporated “as long as they bring benefit to the people”. He said he would appoint cross-party members to official roles.

There are concerns the new DPP administration is going to struggle to push its policy agenda through the parliament. It had campaigned on a platform largely centred on defending Taiwan from China’s annexation threats, but domestically, the third-placed TPP “hold the pivotal place in the parliament,” says Nathan Batto, associate research fellow at Academia Sinica and author of the Frozen Garlic Taiwan political blog. “They will have power. They’re more likely to side with the KMT because their whole discourse is being an opposition party.”

Trouble in east Asia’s oldest party?

For the KMT, having failed to secure more than 40% of the vote in three successive elections, some are wondering if east Asia’s oldest party could be in terminal decline.

However, Batto says deep introspection in the party is unlikely.

“The KMT internal politics is dominated by the hardcore Chinese nationalist wing of the party. The party members who vote in party elections and make the party decisions are heavily skewed towards the old military families with strong Chinese nationalist tendencies. That makes it very hard to reform or move away from old positions within the party.”

Part of Lai’s victory can be attributed to the lack of a credible opposition. The KMT won seats in the legislature, but the fact that the DPP, which is defined by its pro-sovereignty stance, has won an unprecedented three terms in office suggests that the KMT’s position on Taiwan’s cultural and economic links with China is out of kilter with public opinion.

Alexander Huang, the director of international relations for the KMT, disagrees. “I really don’t believe that we [the KMT] have a Taiwan identity problem right now. I really don’t think so. Because everyone is Taiwanese. I was born and raised here.” The problem, says Huang, is that the KMT failed to explain clearly to Taiwanese voters the nuances of their position, something that is “very hard to translate into campaign slogans”.