The 2016 Taiwanese legislative election was held, along with the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

, on 16 January 2016 for all 113 seats in the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

. The

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majorit ...

(DPP) led by

Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen (; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician serving as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 2016. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Tsai is the first female president of Taiwan. She served as ...

, who also won the

on the same day, secured a majority for the first time in history by winning 68 seats. The ruling

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Ta ...

(KMT) lost both the presidency and its legislative majority and returned to the opposition. The DPP managed to unseat the KMT in its traditional blue strongholds across Taiwan, turning districts in Taipei, Taichung and Hualien green, while KMT Vice Chairman

Hau Lung-bin Hau Lung-pin (; born 22 August 1952) is a Taiwanese politician. As a member of the New Party, he was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1995, and resigned his seat to lead the Environmental Protection Administration in 2001. Hau stepped down f ...

conceded defeat to relatively unknown city councilor Tsai Shih-ying from the DPP, becoming one of the most notable upsets in the election. The year-old

New Power Party The New Power Party (NPP) is a political party in Taiwan formed in early 2015. The party emerged from the Sunflower Student Movement in 2014, and advocates for universal human rights, civil and political liberties, as well as Taiwan indepe ...

(NPP), founded by young activists in the wake of the 2014

Sunflower Movement The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

, entered the Legislative Yuan, winning five seats from KMT veterans.

Electoral system

Members were elected by

parallel voting Parallel voting is a type of mixed electoral system in which representatives are voted into a single chamber using two or more different systems, most often first-past-the-post voting (FPTP) with party-list proportional representation (PR). It i ...

Contesting parties and candidates

The two major parties, the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party, used different strategies when nominating candidates for the Legislative Yuan elections. The Kuomintang nominated a candidate in all but one of the constituency seats. The sole exception was Taipei 2, where they instead supported the New Party candidate. The DPP, on the other hand, developed a cooperation strategy with several minor parties. The DPP agreed to support candidates from these parties in exchange for agreements not to stand in tight races where they might sap DPP votes. These included the

, the

Taiwan Solidarity Union The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is a political party in Taiwan which advocates Taiwan independence, and is affiliated with the Taiwanese localization movement. It was officially founded on 12 August 2001 and is considered part of the Pan- ...

, and the

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

Coalition, as well as several independents. This strategy did not work in

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

, where the NPP and DPP backed separate candidates. A total of 43 female candidates won election to the Legislative Yuan, the most ever to take office.

Opinion polls

Single and multi member districts

Proportional representation

Results

By constituency

''Source
Central Election Commission
'

Results by party-list

Aftermath

Kuomintang Vice Chairman

announced he was stepping down after his surprising defeat in the Keelung City Constituency by relatively unknown city councillor Tsai Shih-ying from the DPP, following the Party Chairman

Eric Chu Eric Chu Li-luan (; born on 7 June 1961) is a Taiwanese politician. He was born into a political family with strong Kuomintang (KMT) ties, and served as Vice Premier of the Republic of China, under Premier Wu Den-yih. Prior to this, Chu served ...

resigned from the leadership after his defeat in the presidential election.

By-elections

A total of five legislative seats are scheduled to be contested in by-elections, as both the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party drew candidates for local office from sitting legislators during the 2018 local elections. The first two by-elections are scheduled for 26 January 2019.

Notes

References

External links

Government websites

Central Election Commission
{{Taiwanese elections

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

legislative election Legislative elections in Taiwan January 2016 events in Asia