Woman elected Taiwan nationalists' leader

After ditching Hung Hsiu-chu before Taiwan's elections, the nationalist Kuomintang have named her as their first female leader.

Taiwan's nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) has named its first female leader, two months after losing national elections in January.

Former deputy legislative speaker Hung Hsiu-chu was elected on Saturday, the first woman to head the party in its 100-year history, the Taipei Times reports.

She took more than 50 per cent of the vote against three other contenders, winning outright in the first round, the report said.

Hung was initially to be the KMT's candidate for president in January's elections, but was replaced with party chairman Eric Chu before the polls.

The party lost to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) under Tsai Ing-wen, set to take office in May as Taiwan's first woman president.

The KMT won only 35 of 113 seats in the legislature, while Tsai's DPP won 68 seats and gained control of the top law-making body for the first time.