Legislative Yuan elections

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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[edit]

Members are elected by parallel voting:

Single-member constituencies[edit]

Main article: Legislative Yuan 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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

Year LY Seat composition Political parties by popular vote
Political party Constituency Party list Seats
1992 2



Kuomintang 5,030,725 Refer to
constituency		 95
Democratic Progressive 2,944,195 51
Chinese Social Democratic 126,213 1
Independents 1,331,555 — 14
1995 3



Kuomintang 4,349,089 Refer to
constituency		 85
Democratic Progressive 3,132,156 54
New 1,222,931 21
Independents 730,529 — 4
1998 4
Kuomintang 4,659,679 Refer to
constituency		 123
Democratic Progressive 2,966,835 70
New 708,465 11
Democratic Union 375,118 4
Democratic Nonpartisan Union 66,033 3
New Nation Alliance 157,826 1
Taiwan Independence 145,118 1
Independents 946,431 — 12
2001 5


Democratic Progressive 3,447,740 Refer to
constituency		 87
Kuomintang 2,949,371 68
People First 1,917,836 46
Taiwan Solidarity Union 801,560 13
New 269,620 1
Taiwan Number One 12,917 1
Independents 899,254 — 9
2004 6


Democratic Progressive 3,471,429 Refer to
constituency		 89
Kuomintang 3,190,081 79
People First 1,350,613 34
Taiwan Solidarity Union 756,712 12
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 353,164 6
New 12,137 1
Independents 577,292 — 4
2008 7



Kuomintang 5,291,512 5,010,801 81
Democratic Progressive 3,775,352 3,610,106 27
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 239,317 68,527 3
People First 28,254 — 1
Independents 393,346 — 1
2012 8


Kuomintang 6,339,301 5,863,379 64
Democratic Progressive 5,763,186 4,556,526 40
Taiwan Solidarity Union — 1,178,896 3
People First 175,032 722,089 3
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 168,861 — 2
Independents 532,270 — 1
2016 9


Democratic Progressive 5,416,683 5,370,953 68
Kuomintang 4,724,394 3,280,949 35
New Power 351,244 744,315 5
People First 156,212 794,383 3
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union 27,690 77,672 1
Independents 668,446 — 1
2020 10


Democratic Progressive 6,383,783 4,811,241 61
Kuomintang 5,761,995 4,723,504 38
Taiwan People's 264,478 1,588,806 5
New Power 141,952 1,098,100 3
Statebuilding 141,503 447,286 1
Independents 1,086,463 — 5
2024 11



Kuomintang 5,401,933 4,764,576 52
Democratic Progressive 6,095,276 4,982,062 51
Taiwan People's 403,357 3,040,615 8
Independents 1,069,758 — 2

Early parliamentary elections[edit]

Supplementary elections[edit]

According to the interpretation of the Constitutional Court (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. Delegates of the National Assembly[3] and members of the Legislative Yuan[4] are directly elected, while members of the Control Yuan[5] were indirectly elected by the provincial legislatures. 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.

Year Chamber/Order Seat composition Political party Seats Total
1969 NA supp.





Kuomintang 15 15
1969 LY supp.




Kuomintang 8 11
Independents 3
1969 CY supp.




Kuomintang 1 2
Independents 1
1972 NA 1st supp.




Kuomintang 43 53
Independents 10
1972 LY 1st supp.




Kuomintang 41 51
Chinese Youth 1
Independents 9
1973 CY 1st supp.




Kuomintang 13 15
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 1
1975 LY 2nd supp.




Kuomintang 43 52
Chinese Youth 1
Independents 8
1980 NA 2nd supp.




Kuomintang 63 76
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 12
1980 LY 3rd supp.




Kuomintang 81 97
Chinese Youth 2
Independents 14
1980 CY 2nd supp.



Kuomintang 21 32
Chinese Youth 1
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 9
1983 LY 4th supp.



Kuomintang 83 98
Chinese Youth 2
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 12
1986 NA 3rd supp.



Kuomintang 68 84
Democratic Progressive 11
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 4
1986 LY 5th supp.



Kuomintang 79 100
Democratic Progressive 12
Chinese Youth 2
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 6
1987 CY 3rd supp.



Kuomintang 24 32
Chinese Youth 1
China Democratic Socialist 1
Independents 6
1989 LY 6th supp.



Kuomintang 94 130
Democratic Progressive 21
Chinese Youth 1
Independents 14

National Assembly elections[edit]

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[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ January 31, 2007.CEC Completes Legislative Constituency Redistricting Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Taiwan Headlines. Retrieved on 2008-01-12.
  2. ^ J.Y. Interpretation No. 76
  3. ^ 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－國民大會代表選舉
  4. ^ 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－立法委員選舉
  5. ^ 中央選舉委員會歷次選舉摘要－監察委員選舉
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