JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: In Taiwan, president-elect Chen Shui-bian offered thanks at temples today for his election victory. Yesterday's vote will put his Democratic Progressive Party in control of the government. But many supporters of the ruling Nationalist Party are upset at the end of a half-century in power. CNN's Karuna Shinsho reports from Taipei.</s>KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Around the headquarters of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang, a crowd of former party supporters vented their anger over Saturday's humiliatin defeat at the polls. Yelling, resign, resign, they called for the president Lee Teng- hui to take responsibility for splitting the ruling party and making it impossible for the opposition to take over the presidency. Within the besieged party headquarters, KMT leaders decided to heed the call for reform. President Lee says that in September, when the party holds its annual congress, he would resign from his post as party chairman. Many of the demonstrateors were supporters of James Soong, the independent candidate whose differences with Li Dung way led to his from the expulsion from the KMT. Even as police forced back the demonstrators with water cannon, Soong announced the formation of a new party.</s>JAMES SOONG, DEFEATED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through translator): We have seen what the upper ranks of the KMT have done in these few years. They have gone against Taiwan's mainstream values, gone against the democratic spirit.</s>SHINSHO: Further evidence of a split in party ranks, Taipei's popular mayor, Ma Ying-jeou, announced he was stepping down from the KMT standing committee. In sharp contrast to the chaos around KMT Party headquarters, Chen Shui-bian spent his first day as president-elect paying homage to the late founder of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and making the rounds of the government offices he will soon control. Karuna Shinsho, CNN, Taipei.
Taiwan's President Quits Party Amid Protests After Election Loss