Election of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) 2020

← 20162020 Legislative Yuan election

(Party list share of votes in%)

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

33.98

33.36

11.22

7.75

3.66

3.16

2.41

1.04

3.42

DPP

KMT

TPP ^c

NPP

Qinmin

TSP ^f

Green

Xindg

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2016

 % p

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-10.08

+6.45

+11.22

+1.64

-2.86

+3.16

-0.12

-3.14

-6.27

DPP

KMT

TPP ^c

NPP

Qinmin

TSP ^f

Green

Xindg

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^c The Taiwan People's Party (TPP) was founded in 2019.

^f The Taiwan State Education Party (TSP) was established in 2019.

The 2020 election of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China (Taiwan) took place on January 11th. The 113 MPs Legislative Yuan , the legislative parliament of the Republic of China in Taiwan, was elected . The presidential election also took place on the same day . Despite a significant loss of votes, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was able to defend its absolute majority in the legislative yuan.

prehistory

For the developments since 2016, see Presidential Election in the Republic of China (Taiwan) 2020 # Developments since the last election .

In the last election in 2016, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won an absolute majority of the mandates in the legislative yuan . Several prime ministers took office one after the other , first the non-party Chang San-cheng (Feb. to May 2016) and Lin Chuan (May 2016 to Sept. 2017), and then the DPP politician Lai Ching-te (Sept. 2017 to Jan. 2019) ) and Su Tseng-chang (since Jan. 2019). Chang was appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou and was only intended as a temporary premier from the start. His successor Lin resigned after a year and a half, among other things because - according to his own statements - he did not want to be drawn too much into party-political disputes. Lai Ching-te resigned as a result of the DPP's severe defeat in the local and regional elections in 2018.

Spectrum of parties

“Blue” and “Green” parties

The political parties and opinions in Taiwan are particularly divided on the question of the relationship with the People's Republic of China . Parties of the so-called pan-green spectrum (green = party color of the DPP) are ultimately striving to develop the Republic of China on Taiwan into its own island nation and to more or less completely abandon the claim to reunification with mainland China. Parties of the pan-blue spectrum (blue = party color of the Kuomintang ), on the other hand, emphasize Taiwan's belonging to the Chinese cultural area and reject a unilateral declaration of independence by Taiwan. Only a very small minority, however, supports immediate unification with the People's Republic of China. The question is of the utmost political importance for Taiwan as the People's Republic of China continues to regard Taiwan as a province of China and has strongly opposed any aspirations for independence. In this case, the People's Republic expressly reserves the right to use military means with an "anti-secession law". The discussion between the two political camps is often carried out emotionally, especially by supporters of the pan-green spectrum, as Taiwan was under the rigid one-party rule of the Kuomintang for decades (until democratization in the early 1990s), which quasi state-enacted the reunification requirement. Some pan-green partisans describe this period as foreign rule by the Kuomintang from mainland China over the indigenous Taiwanese island population. Taiwan must now find its way back to its own identity. Supporters of the pan-blue direction emphasize, in addition to the historical and cultural similarities with mainland China, above all the, in their opinion, undoubted great economic advantages that the cooperation with mainland China has brought with it for Taiwan. Too confrontational a course towards the People's Republic would destabilize Taiwan economically and politically.

The DPP, which in its early years still cultivated a relatively radical pro-independence rhetoric, has now adopted a moderate, pragmatist attitude in dealing with the People's Republic of China. Although the claims of the People's Republic of China are clearly rejected by the Republic of China (Taiwan), an independence referendum or a renaming of the state from “Republic of China” to “Taiwan” (formerly a central demand of the DPP) is no longer on the current political agenda Agenda. This is usually justified by the fact that Taiwan is already de facto independent and does not require a formal declaration of independence and that the state name is ultimately secondary. The President Tsai Ing-wen is a representative of this pragmatic policy direction. Within the pan-green spectrum, however, there are always people and groups who disagree with this course or even regard it as betrayal of the original political goals.

Smaller parties

In addition to the DPP and the Kuomintang, according to the opinion polls, three parties were seen as having a good chance of winning mandates in the Legislative Yuan: the New Power Party (NPP), the Qinmindang and the newly founded (see below) Taiwanese People's Party of the Mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je . The NPP, which emerged in 2016 as a "new force" alongside KMT and DPP, fell out over the question of whether the party should support the DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen again as in 2016. As a result, some prominent NPP politicians left the party, including three of the five NPP MPs in the Legislative Yuan. The Qinmindang (PFP) of the presidential candidate James Soong , a party of the blue spectrum, were also given opportunities for mandates.

Party foundations

Before the election, there was speculation as to whether smaller parties, alongside DPP and Kuomintang, would play a bigger role this time around. In the summer of 2019, four new political parties were founded in quick succession, which received greater attention and which all announced their candidacy in the election of the legislative yuan. On July 20, 2019, the Formosa Alliance was constituted as a new party. The Formosa Alliance had already emerged the previous year as an interest grouping radical advocates of independence. It was followed on August 6, 2019 by the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), headed by the previously independent mayor of Taipei, Ko Wen-je. Even though Ko had occasionally taken positions close to the DPP in the past, he stated that the new party was striving to depoliticize the state apparatus and a government by independent experts and criticized the political errors of the Kuomintang and DPP alike. The one-side-a-country action party , founded on August 18, 2019 under the spiritual leadership of DPP ex-president Chen Shui-bian , on the other hand, took a decidedly pan-green standpoint, for example by renaming the state to "Republic of Taiwan" demanded. The Taiwan Renewal Party , founded on August 24, 2019, wanted to focus its activities more on domestic politics and internal reforms in Taiwan. Kos TPP in particular was given greater voting opportunities by the four parties.

Electoral system

The 113 MPs Legislative Yuan is elected in a mixture of proportional and majority voting. 73 MPs are elected by simple majority voting in as many constituencies. Three members each are elected by the indigenous population of the lowlands and the mountains. The remaining 34 seats will be filled by nationwide election. A 5% blocking clause applies. The right to vote very much favors large parties.

A total of 410 candidates ran in the 79 constituencies, and 19 parties registered for the 34 seats on the state list and put up 216 candidates.

Polls

The following table shows some selected polls since 2016.

date	source	DPP	KMT	Qinmin	NPP	Xindang	Green	TSU	NPSU	TPP	Other	draw	guide
4th Dec 2019	Green party	31.9%	22.0%	2.9%	7.0%	-	1.0%	-	-	11.5%	3.0%	-	9.9
19th Nov 2019	PinView	27.0%	22.7%	2.6%	3.6%	-	-	-	-	7.4%	-	-	4.3
14th Nov 2019	WWCTMG	22.0%	25.2%	2.3%	5.9%	-	-	-	-	7.5%	-	-	3.2
5th Nov 2019	WWCTMG	24.2%	29.7%	1.2%	4.5%	-	-	-	-	4.7%	-	-	5.5
27th Oct 2019	ETtoday	31.4%	36.2%	1.2%	5.0%	0.5%	0.9%	-	-	20.5%	4.3%	-	4.8
16 Sep 2019	NCAP	25.3%	28.6%	1.9%	6.4%	0.3%	0.8%	0.1%	-	8.2%	1.7%	26.6%	9.5
29th Sep 2019	ETtoday	31.0%	34.8%	1.7%	5.0%	1.4%	-	0.4%	-	19.9%	5.9%	-	3.8
17th Sep 2019	Green party	25.1%	33.1%	1.7%	8.4%	-	2.1%	-	-	8.9%	3.1%	14.9%	8.0
30 Aug 2019	TVBS	22%	27%	-	6%	-	-	-	-	6%	7%	31%	5
13 Aug 2019	NCAP	23.7%	35.3%	-	7.2%	-	-	-	-	9.8%	3.0%	22.0%	3.6
30 Jul 2019	Formosa	26.5%	23.4%	0.2%	4.2%	-	-	-	-		11.9%	34.1%	3.1
28 Jun 2019	Formosa	27.0%	23.7%	0.1%	3.6%	-	-	-	-		10.2%	36.6%	2.7
18th Jun 2019	Trend Poll	28.3%	31.3%	-	11.9%	-	-	-	-		10.0%	18.5%	3.0
May 28, 2019	Formosa	25.6%	25.4%	0.3%	4.1%	-	-	-	-		8.5%	36.4%	0.2
May 8, 2019	TVBS	22%	32%	-	11%	-	-	-	-		8th %	27%	10
1st Apr 2019	Formosa	21.4%	26.0%	0.2%	3.1%	-	-	0.1%	-		12.1%	37.4%	4.6
20th Feb 2019	TVBS	17%	29%	-	11%	-	-	-	-		12%	32%	12
7th Jan 2019	ESC NCCU	18.1%	30.4%	0.6%	2.7%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%		2.0%	46.2%	12.3
13 Aug 2018	Taiwan Real Survey	16.4%	21.3%	2.4%	6.8%	0.8%	1.2%	0.7%	-		0.1%	50.4%	4.9
19th Apr 2018	Taiwan Brain Trust	30.7%	21.7%	-	12.2%	-	-	-	-		8.7%	26.7%	9
19th Dec 2017	ESC NCCU	22.4%	25.6%	1.3%	5.9%	0.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%		0.5%	43.1%	3.2
21 Apr 2016	Taiwan Brain Trust	35.1%	17.2%	-	10.5%	-	-	-	-		11.9%	25.3%	7.9

Results

Results nationwide

Four parties overcame the 5% threshold : DPP, Kuomintang, Taiwan People's Party and New Power Party. MPs were elected for 34 of the parliamentary seats.

rank	Political party	be right	percent	Seats
1	Democratic Progressive Party	4,811,241	33.98	13
2	Kuomintang	4,723,504	33.36	13
3	Taiwan People's Party	1,588,806	11.22	5
4th	New Power Party	1,098,100	7.75	3
5	Qinmindang	518.921	3.66	-
6th	Taiwan State Education Party	447.286	3.16	-
7th	Taiwan Green Party	341,465	2.41	-
8th	Xindang	147.373	1.04	-
9	One-side-one-country action party	143,617	1.01	-
10	Party of the Stabilizing Force	94,563	0.67	-
11	Taiwan Solidarity Union	50,435	0.36	-
12	Congress party alliance	40,331	0.28	-
13	Unionist Party	32,966	0.23	-
14th	Union of Faiths	31,117	0.22	-
15th	Formosa Alliance	29,324	0.21	-
16	Workers' Party	19,941	0.14	-
17th	United Action Alliance	17,515	0.12	-
18th	Taiwan Renewal Party	11,952	0.08	-
19th	Party for a Sovereign Taiwan and Pescadors	11,681	0.08	-

Results in the constituencies

Constituency winners : DPP (46) Kuomintang (22) TSP (1) Independent of party (4)





Nationwide results in hexagonal representation: DPP (13) KMT (13) TPP (5) NPP (3)





One member was elected in each of the 73 constituencies.

Results in the 73 constituencies

Political party		Won constituencies	as a percentage of all constituencies
	Democratic Progressive Party	46	063.01
	Kuomintang	22nd	030.14
	Taiwan State Education Party	01	001.40
	Party independent	04th	005.48
total		73	100.00

MPs elected by Native Taiwanese people

The Taiwanese natives elected a total of 6 MPs.

Native Taiwan MPs-Elect

Political party		native people
		in the lowlands	in the mountains
	Kuomintang	2	1
	Democratic Progressive Party	1	1
	Party independent	-	1
total		3	3

Composition of the newly elected Legislative Yuan

Composition of the new Legislative Yuan:

DPP （61）

Kuomintang （38）

Taiwan People's Party （5）

New Power Party （3）

Taiwan State Education Party （1）

Non-party （5）

Composition of the newly elected Legislative Yuan

Party name		Abbreviation	Seats	Seats in%
	Democratic Progressive Party	DPP	061	053.98
	Kuomintang	KMT	038	033.63
	Taiwan People's Party	TPP	005	004.42
	New Power Party	NPP	003	002.65
	Taiwan State Education Party	TSP	001	000.89
	Party independent	-	005	004.42
total			113	100.00

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Nationwide At-Large Legislator & Overseas Compatriot Legislator Election. Central Election Commission, January 11, 2020, accessed on January 11, 2020 (English). 
2. ↑ Hiro Fu: Taiwan's 2020 Presidential Race: 50 Shades of Green: The Democratic Progressive Party's Identity Crisis. The New Lens, November 7, 2019, accessed November 20, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Nick Aspinwall: Taiwan's New Power Party Faces Crisis After Departure of Heavyweights. The Diplomat, accessed December 20, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Yeh Su-ping, Wang Cheng-chung, Chen Chun-hua, Liu Kuan-ting, Liang Pei-chi, Yu Hsiang, Joseph Yeh: 2020 Elections: Three small parties seen likely to pass 5% threshold. November 21, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 . 
5. ^ Mark Weatherall, Kai-Ping Huang: Will small parties change Taiwan's political landscape in 2020? Asia Research Institute, University of Nottingham, December 11, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Sean Lin: Formosa Alliance enters political arena. Taipei Times, July 21, 2019, accessed November 16, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Liang Pei-chi, Evelyn Kao: Taipei mayor says his party will give voters more choices. Focus Taiwan, August 1, 2019, accessed August 6, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Duncan DeAeth: New pro-Taiwan independence party holds inaugural meeting. Taiwan News, August 18, 2019, accessed November 23, 2019 . 
9. ^ Another political party formed in Taiwan ahead of 2020 elections. Focus Taiwan, August 24, 2019, accessed November 23, 2019 . 
10. ^ Matthew Strong: Taiwan ex-president barred from running in legislative election: Corruption sentence disqualifies Chen from standing for office: CEC. December 13, 2019, accessed December 18, 2019 . 
11. ↑ 綠黨 民調》 韓 節節 敗退 蔡 韓 差距 達 34.2 ％ 44.2 ％ 希望 泛綠 立委 過半. Liberty Times , December 4, 2019, accessed December 7, 2019 (Traditional Chinese). 
12. ↑ 不 分區 名單 惹禍？ 國 、 民 兩黨 政黨 票 支持 度 首度 出現 黃金 交叉！ PinView, November 21, 2019, accessed November 21, 2019 (Chinese (traditional)).