Taipei, Jan. 13 .- Vice President Lai Ching-te  of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) declared victory in Taiwan's presidential race on Saturday, garnering an unprecedented third consecutive term for his party.

With 99 percent of the 17,795 polling stations reporting as of 8:40 p.m. Saturday, Lai had 5,543,447 votes, or 40.1 percent, ahead of his two opponents, Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and Ko Wen-je  of the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP), according to official Central Election Commission (CEC) vote counts.

Hou had 33.46 percent and Ko had 26.44 percent, the CEC figures showed.

Lai's victory gave the DPP a third straight term in power, the first time a political party has won three consecutive terms in the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) since it held its first direct presidential election in 1996.

Lai says he is 'determined to safeguard Taiwan from China threat'
Lai said he is "determined to safeguard Taiwan from continuing threat and intimidation from China" and will maintain the cross-strait status quo.

Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is an important responsibility, he said, adding that his government will "use dialogue to replace confrontation" in its exchanges with China.

China had warned voters against voting for Lai.