Taiwan opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou won the presidential election Saturday while voters rejected the question of whether Taiwan should join the United Nations.

Ma, a former mayor of Taipei who was running for the Kuomintang party, won 58 per cent of the votes compared to 41.5 per cent for Frank Hsieh of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

"The result gives us a different tomorrow," honorary Kuomintang party chairman Lien Chan told a cheering crowd of supporters.

"It gives us a new environment, a new hope and a new future," he said.

During the campaign, both Ma and Hsieh staked out more moderate ground than current President Chen Shui-bian, who is stepping down in May. 

Ma and Hsieh both advocated a less confrontational relationship with China, but were divided on how best to deal with Beijing.

The Central Election Commission, meanwhile, also said two referendums calling on the government to work for the island's entry into the United Nations failed.

China had warned that the referendums threatened stability in the region.

When the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, with Communist forces taking control of China, President Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang party fled to Taiwan.

Today, the leaders of both mainland China and Taiwan claim to be the rightful rulers of China.

Most countries have chosen to side with the larger and more powerful Communist mainland China. Beijing considers Taiwan, now a country of 23 million people, to be a part of its territory waiting to be reunified, by force if necessary.

With files from the Associated Press