Ma Ying-jeou (front, R), the incumbent Taiwan leader and chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), gestures as he declares his victory in the island's leadership election in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan, Jan. 14, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

TAIPEI - Ma Ying-jeou, the incumbent Taiwan leader and chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), declared his victory in the island's leadership election Saturday evening.

Ma extended appreciation and gratitude toward his supporters at a large gathering held in the KMT headquarters in Taipei amid a heavy rain.

He attributed the victory to the policies his team has made to fight corruption and maintain peace.

Taiwan people showed their recognition of the efforts KMT has made to shelf disputes with the mainland and maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait, he said at the gathering.

At a press conference at the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters, Ma's major rival Tsai Ing-wen admitted her failure in the election and announced that she would resign from the post of DPP chairwoman.

Ma and his running mate Wu Den-yih, who is incumbent chief of the island's executive authority, got more than 6.89 million ballots, or 51.6 percentpercent of the votes, whereas major opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen and her running mate Su Jia-chyuan, got more than 6.09 million ballots, or 45.6 percent of the votes.

People First Party (PFP) chairman James Soong and his running mate Lin Ruey-shiung got more than 369,000 ballots, or 2.8 percent of the votes, according to the island's election organization.

A spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council delivered a speech after the Taiwan leadership election, saying that the facts over the past four years have indicated that the peaceful development of the Cross-Strait relations is a correct road and has obtained support from a majority of Taiwan compatriots.

"We sincerely hoped that the Taiwan society could be stable and people live a happy life."

"We are willing to join hands with Taiwan's all walks of life on the basis of continuing to oppose the 'Taiwan independence' and sticking to the '1992 Consensus', to break new ground for the peaceful development of the cross-Strait relations and make common efforts for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."