Elections in the Republic of China

Elections of the Republic of China gives information on election and election results in the Republic of China (zh-tp|t=中華民國|p=Zhōnghuá Mínguó) with effective control over Taiwan, Quemoy, Matsu and some islands in the South China Sea 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 porportionally 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.

Latest elections

2008 Presidential election

2008 Legislative election

2005 National Assembly election

2004 Legislative election

2004 Presidential election

Past elections

NB: Does not include the 1948 election held in the Republic of China before the fall of mainland China to the communist government of the People's Republic of China. The terms of those elected from mainland seats lasted until December 31, 1991.

Party elections

*Kuomintang chairmanship election, 2005
*Democratic Progressive Party chairmanship election, 2006

Local elections

ee also

* Electoral calendar
* Electoral system

External links

* [http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/t/taiwan/ Adam Carr's Election Archive]
* [http://210.69.23.140/cec/cechead.asp ROC Central Election Commission]
* [http://constitution.president.gov.tw/en/law_roc.htm Constitution of the Republic of China (english)]
* [http://constitution.president.gov.tw/en/law.htm List of the seven revisions of the Republic of China COnstitution (english)]