Election of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China in 2004
The 2004 legislative yuan of the Republic of China was elected on December 11, 2004 . The 225 MPs of the Legislative Yuan , the legislative assembly of the Republic of China in Taiwan, were elected . As a result of the election, the existing majority in the Legislative Yuan changed only slightly. In the opposition parties of the pan-blue coalition , the Kuomintang (KMT) won, but the Qinmindang lost accordingly. The seats in the parties of the pan-green coalition of incumbent President Chen Shui-bian ( Democratic Progressive Party DPP ) remained almost unchanged. After the election, the parties of the Pan-Blue coalition continued to have a slim majority in the legislative yuan.
prehistory
The presidential election in 2000 caused a small political earthquake in Taiwan. The election was won by the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chen Shui-Bian. Chen received only 39.3% of the vote, but that was enough to win the election, since constitutionally only a relative majority of the votes was required. The previously dominant Kuomintang was divided within the party and had not been able to agree on a common candidate, so that two competing candidates competed against each other. As a result of the election, for the first time since the existence of the Republic of China in Taiwan in 1949, a person came to the head of the state who did not belong to the Kuomintang. Ultimately, as a result of this political upheaval, two new political parties were founded, the Qinmindang in the pan-blue camp and the Taiwan Solidarity Union in the pan-green camp. The fundamental question that divided the party spectrum into two major political camps was the question of Taiwan 's relationship with the People's Republic of China . The parties of the pan-blue camp took the position that Taiwan should continue to see itself as part of China and should continue to strive for the goal of "reunification" with mainland China. However, this union should take place under democratic conditions and not under the aegis of the Communist Party ruling in the People's Republic of China . The parties of the pan-green coalition, on the other hand, advocate independent state development for Taiwan, independent of mainland China.
When the legislative yuan was elected in 2001, the KMT suffered significant losses - mainly due to the establishment of Qinmindang and TSU, each headed by former KMT politicians - and the DPP achieved gains. Overall, however, the parties of the pan-blue coalition won a majority in the legislative yuan. President Chen was thus faced with a parliament that was dominated by the opposition. In addition, the political climate between the pan-green and pan-blue camps was extremely polarized and both sides accused each other of betraying Taiwanese interests. As a result, some of the government's work was hampered and Chen was unable to implement most of his legislative proposals. Chen's policy was something of a middle ground. On the one hand he avoided an open confrontation with the People's Republic of China and a unilateral declaration of independence by Taiwan, on the other hand he tried to strengthen a Taiwanese identity. In the presidential election on March 20, 2004 , the parties of the pan-blue camp agreed on a common candidate, bearing in mind the experiences from 2000. However, Chen Shui-bian was able to win the election with a wafer-thin majority of 50.11% to 49.89%, although he had lagged considerably behind in the opinion polls of the last few years.
During the campaign for the Legislative Yuan election, Chen Shui-bian pursued a strategy similar to that in the previous presidential election. He stressed Taiwan's independence and promised to rename state institutions so that the term “China” would be replaced by “Taiwan”. A major election campaign issue was also the question of constitutional reform. Basically, most of the parties agreed that a reform of the constitution, which was essentially still based on the 1947 model, was necessary despite the constitutional amendments that have now been made several times. However, there was disagreement about the necessary extent of such changes. President Chen said his goal was to hold a referendum on a fundamentally new constitution, which in turn was deemed unnecessary by representatives of the pan-blue camp. The People's Republic of China also spoke out strongly against it because it feared that the referendum might simultaneously raise the question of Taiwan's complete sovereignty.
Chen Shui-bian
acting president and DDP party chairman
Lien Chan
KMT party chairman
James Soong
Chairman of Qinmindang
Election mode
The voting mode corresponded to a mixture of proportional representation and personalized voting ( non-transferable individual votes ). Each voter had one vote. With this he elected a representative in the respective constituency and at the same time indirectly decided on the distribution of the party list mandates. Of the 225 MPs, 176 were elected in multi-person constituencies and 41 through national party lists. Eight more seats were reserved for eligible voters abroad. Of the 176 constituency mandates, 8 were reserved for the indigenous people (4 each for the indigenous people of the highlands and the lowlands). A 5 percent threshold was applied to party lists and votes from overseas Taiwanese .
The incumbent Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to the Constitution by a large majority on August 23, 2004, which reduced the size of the Legislative Yuan to 113 seats. Of these 113 MPs, 73 were to be elected in single-person constituencies, 6 in multi-person constituencies for the indigenous people and 34 others through party lists. However, this change in electoral law came into force after the election on June 7, 2005.
Results
Overall result
16,258,979 residents of Taiwan were eligible to vote in the election. 9,649,868 (59.35%) took part. 9,572,532 votes were valid and 77,336 (0.8%) were invalid. Of the 144,646 indigenous people of the lowlands who were eligible to vote, 63,954 (44.2%) took part, and of the 155,629 indigenous people of the highlands who were eligible to vote, 82,477 (53.0%) took part.
| Political party | be right | Mandates | Seats | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | in % | List | Constituency | number | % | +/- | ||
 Kuomintang (中國 國民黨)
|
3,190,081 | 32.83% | 15th | 64 | 79 | 35.1% | +11 | |
 Qinmindang (
親民 黨 , English People First Party )
|
1,350,613 | 13.90% | 6th | 28 | 34 | 15.1% | −12 | |
 Impartial Solidarity Union( 無 黨 團結 聯盟 , English Non-Partisan Solidarity Union ) |
353.164 | 3.63% | 0 | 6th | 6th | 2.7% | (new) +6 |
|
 Xindang ( 新 黨 , English New Party )
|
12,137 | 0.12% | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.4% | ± 0 | |
| Pan-blue coalition (泛藍 陣營) | 4,905,995 | 50.49% | 21st | 99 | 120 | 53.3% | +5 | |
| Democratic Progressive Party (民主 進步 黨) | 3,471,429 | 35.72% | 16 | 73 | 89 | 39.6% | +2 | |
 Taiwan Solidarity Union( 台灣 團結 聯盟 , English Taiwan Solidarity Union ) |
756.712 | 7.79% | 4th | 8th | 12 | 5.3% | −1 | |
| Pan-green coalition (泛綠 陣營) | 4,228,141 | 43.51% | 20th | 91 | 101 | 44.9% | +1 | |
| Other smaller parties | 5,931 | 0.06% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | −1 | |
.svg){kind=icon} Independent
|
577.292 | 5.94% | 0 | 4th | 4th | 1.8% | −5 | |
| total | 9,717,359 | 100.0% | 41 | 184 | 225 | 100.0% | - | |
Of the 225 newly elected MPs, 178 were men and 47 (20.9%) women.
Constituency cards
Regional majorities in the election: Majority for the pan-blue coalition Majority for the pan-green coalition Majority for the impartial solidarity union
Constituency results for the 176 MPs elected in the constituencies, as well as the 8 each by the natives and Taiwanese abroad, and the 41 MPs elected via country lists in hexagonal representation (colors as described)
.svg)
After the election
The turnout was extremely low at 59.4% and was well below that of the presidential election nine months earlier (80.3%) and that of the previous election of the Legislative Yuan in 2001 (66.2%). As a result, the parties of the pan-blue coalition were just able to maintain their majority in the legislative yuan. Due to the relatively poor performance of his party, Chen Shui-bian announced on December 15, 2004 that he was resigning from the DPP leadership. He was succeeded in this office by Su Tseng-chang .
Web links
- Central Electoral Commission of Taiwan (Chinese / English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ching-hsin Yu: ( Chengchi National University Taiwan) The Evolving Party System in Taiwan, 1995–2004 Journal of Asian and African Studies, 2005; 40 (1–2): pp. 105–123, doi: 10.1177 / 0021909605052947 full text (PDF).
- ^ A b John F. Copper: Taiwan's Presidential and Vice-Presidential election: Democracy's consolidation or devolution? Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, 2004 (176) School of Law University of Maryland , ISBN 1-932330-06-2 . digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu (PDF).
- ↑ Kerry Dumbaugh (January 10, 2005): Taiwan in 2004: Elections, Referenda, and Other Democratic Challenges. ( fas.org PDF), Congressional Research Service Reports on Foreign Policy and Regional Affairs - The Library of Congress
- ^ A b c Taiwan Legislative Election 2004 - Report of International Observation Mission. Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), December 2004, accessed October 29, 2016 .
- ^ Concise History. ROC Legislative Yuan, Retrieved October 29, 2016 .
- ↑ a b 2004 Legislator Election. Taiwan Central Electoral Commission, accessed October 29, 2016 .
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