The Second Prefectural Assembly Elections were held on 20 November 1940 in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

under Japanese rule. According to the

Japanese law The law of Japan refers to the legal system in Japan, which is primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with precedents also playing an important role. Japan has a civil law legal system with six legal codes, which were greatly influenced b ...

, half members of prefectural assembly shall be elected by the members of local assembly and the other half shall be appointed by the

Governor-General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

. In this time, 82 seats from five prefectural assemblies were open for election. Voting was done by

Electoral college An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

s (EC) formed by the more than 3,600 members of local assemblies. Around half of them were directly elected in the previous year, the other half were appointed by the prefectural governor . The 1944 election was cancelled due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, hence the tenure of the elected and appointed councilors was extended until the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was Hirohito surrender broadcast, announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally Japanese Instrument of Surrender, signed on 2 September 1945, End of World War II in Asia, ending ...

in 1945.

Electoral College size

Only around 0.067% of the population were eligible to vote in the election, which includes 861 (or 0.29% of) " Japan Mainlanders" in Taiwan and 2,824 (or 0.055% of) " Taiwan Islanders" .

Result

All 82 seats were elected. The overall turnout was at 98.51%, of which Taiwanese was higher than Japanese. 6 invalid electoral votes were found and 55 did not cast their votes. Amongst the elected prefectural assembly, 44 were Japanese and 38 were Taiwanese. The

then appointed 76 members, most of them were Japanese.

References

{{Taiwan elections

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...

1940 in Taiwan 1940 elections in Asia