Members of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) party vote on Saturday to choose a new chairperson, as the party seeks to recover from its lowest ebb in the past 70 years.

The southeast China island region's former deputy leader Wu Den-yih and KMT's incumbent chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu are the top two candidates. According to local media, polls show that Wu Den-yih is the favorite to win, with over 30 percent support.

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Hung Hsiu-chu, the incumbent chairperson, has repeatedly called for mutual recognition of governance and a step forward toward political negotiations, rather than restricting cross-Strait talks to economy-related matters. Under her leadership, the party in September last year passed a charter to promote policies to look into the possibility of signing a peace agreement with Beijing. Formal “Taiwanese independence will never be an option” for the KMT, she recently said in an interview.

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Wu acknowledged the "1992 consensus" reached between China's mainland and Taiwan, saying agreeing to different interpretations of "one China" is a very important foundation for cross-Strait exchanges.

The other four candidates are former mayor of Taipei and incumbent vice chairman Hau Lung-bin, former KMT vice chairman Chan Chi-shean, former legislator Pan Wei-kang, and former legislator Han Kuo-yu.

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As per the party charter, a candidate must receive more than half the votes to win the election. If there is no winner in the first round, the top two candidates will contest a runoff election.

According to the party's secretary-general, turnout for Saturday's election is predicted to be between 55 percent and 60 percent of total eligible voters. The party said in April that the eligible electorate totalled 451,510.

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If needed, a second poll would be held on June 4, the KMT said. 

The KMT dominated the island region for decades, but now it is battling to keep a foothold in the island’s shifting political landscape. The party lost the leadership election to Democratic Progressive Party last year and, for the first time, it relinquished control of the Legislative Yuan.