Legislative Yuan elections

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In Taiwan, parliamentary elections are held every four years to elect the 113 members of the Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of Taiwan. The current electoral system was introduced in 2008. The constitutional amendments of 2005 extended term length from three to four years, reduced seat count from 225 to 113, and abolished the National Assembly, originally another governmental organ equivalent to a chamber of parliament.

Current electoral system

Members are elected by parallel voting:

Single-member constituencies

The delimitation of the single-member constituencies within the cities and counties was initially a major political issue in the early years, with bargaining between the government and the legislature. Of the 15 cities and counties to be partitioned (the ten others have only one seat), only seven of the districting schemes proposed by the CEC were approved in a normal way. The eight other schemes were decided by drawing lots: "Taipei and Taichung cities and Miaoli and Changhua counties will adopt the version suggested by the CEC, while Kaohsiung city will follow the consensus of the legislature. Taipei county will follow the proposal offered by the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union, Taoyuan county will adopt the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's scheme, and Pingtung county will use the scheme agreed upon by the Non-partisan Solidarity Union, People First Party, Kuomintang and Taiwan Solidarity Union."[1]

Under Articles 35 and 37 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act [zh], the electoral constituencies are to be revised every ten years based on population density. Demographic data is obtained by investigation of household registration and should be compiled two years and two months before the tenure of current legislators end. The Central Election Commission reviews the boundaries, then submits any proposed alterations to the Legislative Yuan 20 months before the election for final consent and announcement.

Indigenous districts

Six seats are reserved for indigenous peoples. They are elected by single non-transferable vote in two 3-member constituencies for lowland aborigines and highland aborigines respectively. This system did not fulfil the promise in the treaty-like document A New Partnership Between the Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Taiwan, where each of the 13 recognised indigenous peoples was to get at least one seat, and the distinction between highland and lowland abolished.

Party-list

Seats are allocated using the largest remainder method with the Hare quota which, with 34 seats, is 2.9412%. A party's vote share must exceed a threshold of 5% to win any seats. Votes for parties which do not pass the threshold are first excluded. The vote share for the remaining parties are calculated. A party is allocated one seat for every 2.9412% of votes. The remaining seats are allocated in succession to the party with the largest remainder.

For each party, at least half of the legislators elected under this system must be female. Therefore, with an odd number of seats, females will always outnumber males.

List of Legislative Yuan elections

LY Year First party Status Seat composition Popular vote (Party list vote from 2008) Parties (by seat count)
1 1948 Kuomintang Majority (716/759)



2 1992 Kuomintang Majority (95/161)





3 1995 Kuomintang Decrease Majority (85/161)





4 1998 Kuomintang Increase Majority (123/225)
5 2001 Democratic Progressive Increase Minority (87/225)



6 2004 Democratic Progressive Increase Minority (89/225)



7 2008 Kuomintang Increase Majority (81/113)





8 2012 Kuomintang Decrease Majority (64/113)




9 2016 Democratic Progressive Increase Majority (68/113)



10 2020 Democratic Progressive Decrease Majority (61/113)



11 2024 Kuomintang Increase Minority (52/113)





Early parliamentary elections

Supplementary elections

According to the interpretation of the Judicial Yuan,[2] under the original constitution the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan, and Control Yuan were seen to constitute the Parliament in Taiwan. After 20 years of relocating the government to Taiwan, the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China amended the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion to start limited parliamentary elections. The elected members served together with existing members elected by the 1947 Chinese National Assembly election, the 1948 Chinese legislative election, and the 1947-1948 Chinese Control Yuan election in the respective chambers.

Election Date Legislative Yuan[3] National Assembly[4] Election Date Control Yuan[5]
Name Seats Name Seats Name Seats
1969 Taiwanese legislative election 1969 December 20 Supp. 11 Supp. 15 1969 Taiwanese Control Yuan election 1969 December 29 Supp. 2
1972 Taiwanese legislative election 1972 December 23 1st supp. 51 1st supp. 53 1973 Taiwanese Control Yuan election 1973 February 15 1st supp. 15
1975 Taiwanese legislative election 1975 December 20 2nd supp. 52
1980 Taiwanese legislative election 1980 December 6 3rd supp. 97 2nd supp. 100 1980 Taiwanese Control Yuan election 1980 December 29 2nd supp. 32
1983 Taiwanese legislative election 1983 December 3 4th supp. 98
1986 Taiwanese legislative election 1986 December 6 5th supp. 100 3rd supp. 100 1987 Taiwanese Control Yuan election 1987 January 10 3rd supp. 32
1989 Taiwanese legislative election 1989 December 2 6th supp. 130

National Assembly supplementary elections

Term Year First party
(Status)
Supplementary seat composition Parties
(by seat count)
1
supp.
1969 Kuomintang
Steady Majority (15/15)





1
1st supp.
1972 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (43/53)




  •      Kuomintang (43)
  •      Independents (10)
1
2nd supp.
1980 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (63/76)




1
3rd supp.
1986 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (68/84)



Legislative Yuan supplementary elections

Term Year First party
(Status)
Supplementary seat composition Parties
(by seat count)
1
supp.
1969 Kuomintang
Steady Majority (8/11)




  •      Kuomintang (8)
  •      Independents (3)
1
1st supp.
1972 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (41/51)




1
2nd supp.
1975 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (43/52)




1
3rd supp.
1980 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (81/97)




1
4th supp.
1983 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (83/98)



1
5th supp.
1986 Kuomintang
Decrease Majority (79/100)



1
6th supp.
1989 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (94/130)



Control Yuan supplementary elections

Supplementary members of the Control Yuan were indirectly elected by the provincial legislatures.

Term Year First party
(Status)
Supplementary seat composition Parties
(by seat count)
1
supp.
1969 Even




  •      Kuomintang (1)
  •      Independents (1)
1
1st supp.
1973 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (13/15)




1
2nd supp.
1980 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (21/32)



1
3rd supp.
1987 Kuomintang
Increase Majority (24/32)



National Assembly elections

Following the constitutional reforms in the 1990s, elections for the National Assembly in its entirety was conducted. The chamber was streamlined in 2000 and became fully defunct in 2005.

Term Year First party
(Status)
Seat composition Popular vote Parties
(by seat count)
2 1991 Kuomintang
Steady Majority (254/325)





3 1996 Kuomintang
Decrease Majority (183/334)





ad hoc 2005 Democratic Progressive
Increase Minority (127/300)





See also

References