At stake in this election:

• 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President MA Ying-jeou
• Head of Government: Premier WU Den-yih
• Assembly: Taiwan has a unicameral Legislative Yuan with 113 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 4-year term.
• Premier is appointed by the President.
• In the Legislative Yuan, 73 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms, 34 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 6 members are elected by single non-transferable vote to serve 4-year terms.***

*** Each voter has two votes: one in a single-member constituency or in one of two three-member constituencies representing indigenous groups (highland or lowland); one for a party list. Proportional representation seats are allocated nationwide with a 5 percent threshold. A gender quota of one half applies to party lists.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Chinese Nationalist Party / Kuomintang 中國國民黨 (KMT)
  • Leader: MA Ying-jeou
  • Seats won in this election: 64
  • Seats won in last election: 72
• Party: Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) / 民主進步黨: Mínzhǔ jìnbù dǎng
  • Leader: TSAI Ing-wen
  • Seats won in this election: 40
  • Seats won in last election: 33
• Party: People First Party
  • Leader: James Soong CHU-YU
  • Seats won in this election: 3
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: Non-Partisan Solidarity Union / : 無黨團結聯盟
  • Leader: LIN Pin-Kuan
  • Seats won in this election: 2
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: Taiwan Solidarity Union / 台灣團結聯盟
  • Leader: HUANG Kun-fei
  • Seats won in this election: 3
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Independent(s): Other
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 1
  • Seats won in last election: 1
• Party: Green Party Taiwan
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: New Party
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: Free Medical Care Union
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: Taiwan National Congress
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: People Party
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: Taiwanism Party
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Party: ROC Basic Laws of Taiwan Corporation
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
  • Seats won in last election: 0

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 22,974,347 (July 2010 )
• Registered Voters: 18,090,295 (January 2012 )