Legislative elections were held 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 ...

on 13 January 2024 to elect members of 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 four-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a ...

. The elections were held alongside

presidential elections 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 ...

. The results saw the ruling

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a centre to centre-left Taiwanese nationalist political party in Taiwan. As the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition, one of the two main political camps in Taiwan, the DPP is currently the ...

(DPP) lose its majority in the Legislative Yuan that it had held since

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, losing 11 seats and retaining 51, while the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

(KMT) became the largest single party with 52 seats, and the

Taiwan People's Party The Taiwan People's Party (TPP) is a centre-left political party in Taiwan. It was formally established on 6 August 2019 by Ko Wen-je, who served as its first chairman. The party considers itself as an alternative third party to both the De ...

(TPP) won eight seats. The

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 liberties, civil and political freedom, political libe ...

lost all its three seats after failing to win a constituency seat or meet the 5% threshold for at-large representation. The election marked the first time under the current electoral system (introduced in 2008) that no party held an absolute majority in the Legislative Yuan, and the first in which the largest party in the legislature won neither the most constituency votes nor the most party votes. The term of the Legislative Yuan began on 1 February 2024.

Electoral system

Members were elected by

parallel voting In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more Electoral system, electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture o ...

. 73 members were elected by

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

, 6 reserved for

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

candidates by

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote. Being a semi-proportional variant of first-past-the-post voting, under SNTV small parties, as well as large parties, have a chance t ...

, and 34 by

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

Contesting parties and candidates

A total of 315 candidates registered for first-past-the-post seats in the 2024 legislative election. Sixteen political parties submitted party lists to the

Central Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

(CEC). A total of 178 nominees were included on party lists. On 15 December 2023, the CEC announced that six first-past-the post candidates, one candidate running for a reserved

seat, and one party list candidate, were ineligible. The campaign period officially started on 16 December 2023.

Results

The Kuomintang won 52 seats, making it the largest single party in the Legislative Yuan. The DPP, having won 51 seats, declined to the second largest party in the Legislative Yuan. The

ranked the third with 8 seats under its control. The DPP lost 11 seats in the election, which also meant the loss of the parliamentary majority that it had held since

. The election results also led to the removal of the

, which previously held three seats, from the Legislative Yuan after it failed to win a constituency seat or meet the 5% threshold needed to win at-large seats. Two independents, namely

Chen Chao-ming Chen Chao-ming (; born 17 December 1951) is a Taiwanese politician. Education Chen attended elementary school in Zhunan, middle school in Toufen, and graduated from . Subsequently, Chen studied public administration at National Chengchi Univ ...

and

Kao Chin Su-mei Kao Chin Su-mei (traditional Chinese: 高金素梅; pinyin: ''Gāo Jīn Sùméi''; born September 21, 1965), also known as Chin Su-mei, May Chin and Ciwas Ali, is a Taiwanese politician and retired actress and singer. She is of Manchu and Ataya ...

, who were members of the Kuomintang caucus in the 10th Yuan, were also elected. The election was the first in Taiwanese history in which the party that received the most votes did not win the most seats, and also marked the first time since

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

that no party held an absolute majority in the Legislative Yuan. This result that TPP therefore has the "

kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a monarchy or royal in their political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the ...

" position, it's also meant that the TPP’s support was crucial in the selection of the

President of the Legislative Yuan The president of the Legislative Yuan is the presiding officer of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China. The incumbent president is Han Kuo-yu, a legislator from the Kuomintang. Election The president is elected by and from among al ...

and the major policies. The election was also the first time that an openly

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

candidate, Huang Jie (DPP) of

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...

city's sixth constituency, was elected to the Legislative Yuan. It was also the first time that an openly transgender person, Abbygail ET Wu of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

(at-large), ran for the chamber, albeit unsuccessfully.

By constituency

By National-at-large

National-at-large legislators are apportioned by

largest remainder method Party-list proportional representation Apportionment methods The quota or divide-and-rank methods make up a category of apportionment rules, i.e. algorithms for allocating seats in a legislative body among multiple groups (e.g. parties or f ...

. Political parties will gain seats upon reaching the 5% threshold and allocated based on total votes. The quota remains as 2.9412%, each political party will be allocated a seat. The remainder will be allocated based on the largest remainder (Remainder: Democratic Progressive Party 0.7244%; Kuomintang 1.9683%; Taiwan People's Party 0.2496%).

Aftermath

At the opening of the new Legislative Yuan on 1 February 2024,

Han Kuo-yu Han Kuo-yu (Chinese language, Chinese: 韓國瑜, born 17 June 1957), also known as Daniel Han, is a Taiwanese politician and retired Republic of China Army officer who is the current president of the Legislative Yuan. Han graduated from the ...

of the Kuomintang was elected as

following two rounds of voting in which all eight members of the TPP abstained in the second round. Han obtained the support of the KMT's 52 members in the Legislative Yuan as well as two independents and defeated the DPP's You Si-kun and the TPP's

Huang Shan-shan Huang Shan-shan (; born 18 October 1969), also known by her English name Vivian Huang, is a Taiwanese politician and lawyer currently affiliated with the Taiwan People's Party. Huang graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of ...

. The KMT's

Johnny Chiang Chiang Chi-chen (; born 2 March 1972), also known by his English name Johnny Chiang, is a Taiwanese politician and political scientist who has served as the vice president of the Legislative Yuan since 2024. Chiang served as an associate pro ...

was also elected as deputy speaker, defeating the DPP's

Tsai Chi-chang Tsai Chi-chang (; born 16 April 1969) is a Taiwanese politician and member of the Legislative Yuan. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2012 and served as deputy speaker from 2016 to 2024 ...

and the TPP's Chang Chi-kai.

Notes

References

{{Authority control

Legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

Legislative elections in Taiwan