Elections in The Republic of China

Elections In The Republic Of China

Elections of the Republic of China (ROC) gives information on election and election results in the Republic of China (Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó) with effective control over Taiwan Area since 1949. The Republic of China elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a four year term by the people. Prior to 2007, the Legislative Yuan (Lifa Yuan 立法院) had 225 members, 168 members elected for a three year term in multi-seat constituencies, 8 members representing the aboriginals, 41 members elected by proportional representation and 8 members representing the overseas Chinese elected by proportional representation. Amid 70% public support, the Legislative Yuan voted 217-1 on August 23, 2004 for a package of amendments to:

  • halve the number of seats from 225 to 113
  • switch to a single-member district parallel voting electoral system
  • increase the terms of members from 3 to 4 years, to synchronize the legislative and presidential elections. (It is unclear whether this will be implemented for the next presidential and legislative elections with small parties opposing the move, because it would reduce their chances of getting better results)

The new electoral system will include 73 plurality seats (one for each electoral district), 6 seats for aboriginals, with the remaining 34 seats to be filled from party lists. Every county has a minimum of 1 electoral district, thereby guaranteed at least one seat in the legislature, while party lists for the proportionally represented seats must be half women. Members for this 34 party lists seats shall be elected from the lists of political parties in proportion to the number of votes won by each party that obtains at least 5 percent of the total vote on the Free Area of the Republic of China (中華民國自由地區).

The ROC has a multi-party system, but there are only a few major parties organized into two factions: the Pan-Blue Coalition and the Pan-Green Coalition.

Read more about Elections In The Republic Of China:  Past Elections, Party Elections

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