At stake in this election:

• 225 seats in the Legislative Yuan.

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President CHEN Shui-bian
• Head of Government: Premier Frank HSIEH
• Assembly: Taiwan has a unicameral Legislative Yuan with 225 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 4-year term.
• In the Legislative Yuan, 176 members are elected by popular vote to serve 3-year terms and 49 members are selected .***

*** The remaining 49 members (8 ROC citizens who reside abroad and 41 in-country nationals) are selected by the political parties according to the proportion of nationwide votes received by each.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
  • Leader: CHEN Shui-bian
• Party: Kuomintang Party (KMT)
  • Leader: LIEN Chan
• Party: People's First Party (PFP)
  • Leader: James SOONG
• Party: Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU)
  • Leader: HUANG Chu-wen
• Party: Chinese New Party (CNP)
  • Leader: HAU Lang-bin
• Party: Other
  • Leader: N/A

Last Parliamentary election:

• Legislative Yuan elections were last held December 5, 1998.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 22,370,461 (July 2001 est.)
• Registered Voters: 15,822,684 ( 2001 )