Cross-Straits ties shadow Taiwan vote

Voters in Taiwan will go to the polls on Saturday to elect the island's new leader and legislature, but voter sentiment is weighed down by uncertainties surrounding postelection cross-Straits stability.

Liu Tung-lung, a retired senior government official and member of the Kuomintang, told Xinhua News Agency that he was anxious, not about the election result but the uncertainty of the island's future relations with the mainland.

"I would be upset if (KMT candidate) Eric Chu lost the election, but I could live with that. The KMT has lost before," he said. "What worries me most is (Democratic Progressive Party candidate) Tsai Ing-wen's cross-Straits policies, especially her stance on the 1992 Consensus."