Taiwan’s next president, on which about Seventeen million eligible voters will decide today/Saturday at the polls, will have to deal with the stumbling economy of the Asian province and also with its giant neighbor China.

The voting process is closely supervised by Beijing and Washington so it can run as democratic as possible after almost a decade of tensions under China’s current president Chen Shui-bian.

The two candidates are: Ma Ying-jeou, a Harvard graduate belonging to the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), and Frank Hsieh, who leads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). So far, the front runner is Ma, although the gap between the two candidates has narrowed over the past couple of days.

The polling stations were closed at about 4:00 pm (0800 GMT) and results are expected within hours.

The inhabitants of the small island will also cast ballots on a referendum which will decide whether Taiwan should get U.N. membership. It would be a risky move and it would surely irritate China.

"The mainland (China) would consider that, if not outright, but certainly very akin, very close to Taiwan declaring its independence. So, in that sense it could have serious consequences, actually," said Dali Yang, head of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, according to Voice of America.

The top issue is Taiwan's political relations with China. The island situated in East Asia has been self governed for almost fifty years, but Beijing still considers it as a Chinese province.
The Chinese top officials threatened to use force if necessary to prevent the small province from declaring its independence.

Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, constantly informs the Chinese people that many countries are condemning the Taiwanese referendum. Among the countries that are critical about Taiwan’s referendum to join the U.N. are the United States, Japan and Russia, but also Bulgaria, Latvia and Cambodia.