Taiwan: Legislative Yuan, 16 January 2016

At stake in this election:     

• The 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Ma YING-JEOU (since 20 May 2008)
• Head of Government: Premier Mao CHI-KUO (since 8 December 2014)
• Assembly: Taiwan has a unicameral Legislative Yuan with 113 seats

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by simple majority popular vote to serve a 4-year term.
• The Premier is appointed by the President.
• In the Legislative Yuan, 73 members are elected by simple majority vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms, 34 members are elected by proportional representation vote in a single island-wide constituency (including overseas compatriots) to serve 4-year terms*, and 6 members are elected by proportional representation vote in multi-seat aboriginal constituencies to serve 4-year terms.

 

*For these seats, voters select political parties, and members of the Legislative Yuan are then chosen based on candidate lists provided by political parties. Additionally, only parties that receive at least 5% of the vote are allocated seats, and at least half of the seats won by each party must be filled by female candidates.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Chinese Nationalist Party / Kuomintang (KMT)

Leader: Eric CHU

Seats won in last election: 64

• Party: Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)

Leader: Tsai ING-WEN

Seats won in last election: 40

• Party: People First Party (PFP)

Leader: James SOONG

Seats won in last election: 3

• Party: Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU)

Leader: Huang KUN-HUEI

Seats won in last election: 3

• Party: Non-Partisan Solidarity Union

Leader: Lin PIN-KUAN

Seats won in last election: 2

Last election:

• The last election for the Legislative Yuan was held on 14 January 2012.  There were 18,090,295 registered voters for the election. The Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party won 64 seats (of 113), or 44.28% of the vote; the Democratic Progressive Party won 40 seats (of 113), or 34.41% of the vote; the Taiwan Solidarity Union won 3 seats (of 113), or 8.90% of the vote; the People First Party won 3 seats (of 113), or 5.45% of the vote; the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union won 2 seats (of 113), or 1.12% of the vote. For complete results, click here.  

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 23,415,126 (2015 est.)[1]
• Registered voters: 18,090,295 (2012)[2]

Gender Data:

• Female Population: 11,707,563 (2015 est.)[3]
• Is Taiwan a signatory to CEDAW: N/A[4]
• Has Taiwan ratified CEDAW: N/A[5]
• Gender Quota:  Yes[6]
• Female Candidates in this election: Yes
• Number of Female Legislators: 37 (33%) of 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan[7]
• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: N/A[8]
• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A[9]

Disability Data:

• Is Taiwan a signatory to CRPD: N/A[10]
• Has Taiwan ratified CRPD: N/A[11]
• Population with a disability: 3,512,269 (2015 est.)[12]

 

 

 

[1]  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tw.html   

[2]  http://www.electionguide.org/elections/id/1619/  

[3] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tw.html

[4] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en

[5] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-8&chapter=4&lang=en

[6]  http://www.idea.int/gender/quotas_special_areas.cfm?country=226

[7]  http://www.idea.int/gender/quotas_special_areas.cfm?country=226

[8] http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-1-human-development-index-and-its-components

[9] http://genderindex.org/countries

[10] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=iv-15&chapter=4&lang=en

[11] https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=iv-15&chapter=4&lang=en

[12] http://www.electionaccess.org/en/resources/countries/