Election of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China in 2016

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(Party list share of votes in%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

44.06

26.91

6.52

6.11

4.18

2.53

2.51

7.17

DPP

KMT

Qinmin

NPP ^d

Xindg

Green ^f

TSU

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2012

 % p

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-14

-16

-18

+9.44

-17.64

+1.03

+6.11

+2.69

+0.73

-6.45

+4.08

DPP

KMT

Qinmin

NPP ^d

Xindg

Green ^f

TSU

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^d The New Power Party was founded in 2015.

^f The Taiwan Green Party ran on a joint list with the Social Democratic Party.

The election of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China in 2016 took place on January 16, 2016. It was the 9th election of a legislative yuan in the Republic of China to Taiwan . The election of the new president also took place on the same day . The then opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) achieved its best election result in the history of the Republic of China in Taiwan.

prehistory

The election took place according to schedule, i.e. H. after the end of the legal four-year legislative period. The last election took place on January 14, 2012. The Kuomintang (KMT) received 44.55 percent of the votes cast and the DPP 34.62 percent. The Kuomintang had ruled with a majority since then. It provided the president and held the majority of parliamentary seats in the legislative yuan. During the legislative period, the population became increasingly dissatisfied with the government. The actions of the government in the negotiations with the People's Republic of China for a new economic and trade agreement, perceived by many Taiwanese as opaque, was particularly controversial . Many feared that Taiwan could gradually lose its independence and its democratic achievements with too close ties to the People's Republic and develop into a kind of second Hong Kong. 2014 was a particularly turbulent year. Protesting students held the Legislative Yuan Parliament building for almost a month as part of the so-called Sunflower Movement . A new political party, the New Power Party (NPP) , later emerged from the sunflower movement . A second reason for the discontent was probably that Taiwan's economy was not flourishing as it had been for many years. The gross domestic product grew by almost 1 percent in 2015. Economic policy had long been considered one of the “core competencies” of the Kuomintang. Taiwan's national income is unevenly distributed, which many consider to be socially unjust.

Suffrage

The country is divided into 73 constituencies, in each of which one member is elected according to simple majority voting. Six MPs are elected by the indigenous people of Taiwan , three of them in the highlands and three in the lowlands. The remaining 34 seats of the 113-seat parliament are filled in accordance with the nationwide share of the votes of the parties via the party lists. A threshold of five percent applies to entering parliament as a party (not for constituency seats) .

Campaign issues

Protesters of the Green Social Democratic Alliance on the occasion of the meeting of President Ma with President of the People's Republic of China Xi on November 4, 2015

Since the presidential election takes place on the same day, the election campaign for the seats in the legislative yuan and for the presidency was conducted in parallel. The campaign topics were essentially the same (see also the relevant article on the presidential campaign ). As always in elections in Taiwan, the main topic was the relationship with the People's Republic of China . Economic issues and questions about a more equitable distribution of income were also discussed.

Opinion polls

The following table shows the results of opinion polls related to the parties. The opinion polls indicated that, for the first time in the history of the Republic of China, the DPP could win an absolute majority of seats in Taiwan. Although the DPP occupied the presidency between 2000 and 2008, it never managed to win anywhere near the majority of the mandates in the legislative yuan. She won the highest share of seats with 39.6% in the 2004 election. In the last election in 2012, she won 40 out of 113 seats (35.4%). According to the opinion polls, three other political parties besides the KMT and DPP were able to pass the 5% hurdle: the Qinmindang , the alliance of the Taiwanese Green Party and the newly founded Social Democratic Party and the New Power Party, which was also founded last year . The opinion polls were, however, fraught with a high level of uncertainty, as around a quarter to a third of those questioned were undecided or did not comment.

source	date	KMT	DPP	TSU	QMD	Xindang †	Minkuotang	New Power Party	Green - Social Democratic Coalition	Other	draw
trend	March 14, 2015	19.9%	25.7%	4.0%	7.0%	-	-	-	-	-	43.4%
Trend [1]	19th May 2015	26.7%	33.4%	4.4%	6.6%	1.5%	0.4%	3.6%	Greens: 3.3% SD: 0.9%	4.6%	14.6%
TVBS [2]	June 1, 2015	24%	29%	3%	4%	0.8	0.8%	0.4%	Greens: 1% SD: 0.1%	2.5%	34%
New Realm [3]	July 9, 2015	18.67%	31.67%	1.61%	5.14%	1.29	-	3.86%	Greens: 0.80% SD: 0.32%	1.08%	35.08%
Trend [4]	July 12, 2015	20.5%	38.2%	3.7%	8.3%	0.9%	-	-	-	8.3%	20.1%
Tremd [5]	July 16, 2015	24.6%	35.6%	4.1%	9.2%	2.1%	-	-	-	7.9%	16.5%
Decision [6]	August 9, 2015	24.3%	30.3%	1.8%	6.6%	1.4%	-	5.6%	2.6%	-	27.4%
Freedom Journal	August 26, 2015	17.38%	36.71%	1.39%	4.93%	-	0.28%	1.3%	0.46%	2.42%	35.13%
Taiwan index [7]	September 12, 2015	22.1%	35.1%	1.9%	7.2%	0.1	0.0%	0.3%	Greens: 1.3% SD: 0.1%	2.1%	29.9%
trend	September 14, 2015	21.5%	37.6%	4.1%	5.6%	-	0.8%	6.8%	1.8%	1.4%	20.4%
trend	17th September 2015	22.7%	34.2%	3.7%	4.3%	-	0.7%	5.6%	2.3%	2.1%	24.4%
trend	23rd September 2015	19.7%	34.7%	3.4%	6.9%	-	0.5%	7.0%	1.7%	2.4%	23.7%
Freedom Journal	October 16, 2015	19.01%	33.17%	1.65%	3.2%	-	0.39%	1.75%	0.10%	-	40.71%
TVBS	October 18, 2015	33%	28%	3%	3%	-	2%	5%	2%	2%	22%
Trend [8]	October 24, 2015	21.3%	37.5%	3.0%	7.2%	0.2%	0.6%	4.7%	2.4%	0.8%	22.3%
Shih Hsin University [9]	October 31, 2015	23.3%	34%	2.3%	4.1%	0.7%	0.5%	3.1%	-	1.8% ††	30.2%
TVBS	December 13, 2015	23%	27%	2%	5%	-	2%	6%	3%	3%	25%
Notes:： † Xindang : The Xindang withdrew all of their candidates and called for the election of the Kuomintang , †† NPSU 1.8%

Forecasts for the voting shares of the parties over time since March 2015 in graphical representation

Results

The turnout was 66.25%. Of the 18,786,940 eligible voters, 12,447,036 cast their votes, whereby 256,897 votes were invalid.

Results nationwide

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

Majorities according to municipalities in the state-wide proportional vote

rank	Political party	be right	percent	Seats
1	Democratic Progressive Party	5,370,953	44.06	18th
2	Kuomintang	3,280,949	26.91	11
3	Qinmindang	794.838	6.52	3
4th	New Power Party	744.315	6.11	2
5	Xindang	510.074	4.18	-
6th	Green - Social Democratic Alliance	308.106	2.53	-
7th	Taiwan Solidarity Union	305,675	2.51	-
8th	League of Faith and Hope	206,629	1.70	-
9	Minkuotang	197,627	1.62	-
10	Alliance of Military Members, Officials and Teachers	87.213	0.72	-
11	Impartial Solidarity Union	77,672	0.64	-
12	Tree party	77.174	0.63	-
13	Unionist Party	56,347	0.46	-
14th	Alliance for the National Health System	51,024	0.42	-
15th	Free Taiwan Party	47,988	0.39	-
16	Peace Dove Union Party	30,617	0.25	-
17th	Taiwan Independence Party	27,496	0.23	-
18th	Constitutional Assemblies of Taiwan	15,442	0.13	-

Results in the constituencies

Election results in the constituencies

Constituency results in hexagonal representation: DPP KMT New Power Party Qinmindang





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	49	067.12
	Kuomintang	20th	027.40
	New Power Party	03	004.11
	Non-party	01	001.37
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	2
	Democratic Progressive Party	1	-
	Impartial Solidarity Union	-	1
total		3	3

Composition of the newly elected Legislative Yuan

Composition of the newly elected Legislative Yuan DPP 68 KMT 35 NPP 5 Qinmindang 3 NPSU 1 Independent 1







Composition of the legislative yuan after the 2016 election

Party name		Abbreviation	Seats	Seats in%
	Democratic Progressive Party	DPP	068	060.18
	Kuomintang	KMT	035	030.97
	New Power Party	NPP	005	004.42
	Qinmindang	PFP	003	002.65
	Impartial Solidarity Union	NPSU	001	000.88
	Non-party	-	001	000.88
total			113	100.00

Of the 113 MPs, 70 are men and 43 (38%) women. The average age of the MPs is almost 50 years. With regard to their highest educational qualifications, 20 have a doctorate , 58 have a master’s degree and 23 a bachelor’s degree, the remaining 12 have other degrees.

evaluation

The election result was remarkable in several ways. The DPP achieved its best election result since it was founded in elections in Taiwan. For the first time it achieved an absolute majority of mandates in the legislative yuan. This is the first time that the situation has arisen where one or more parties that in principle support full independence of Taiwan while giving up the goal of “reunification of China” have a majority in parliament. On the other hand, the Kuomintang achieved its worst election result in Taiwan since the Republic of China was founded. As a new political party, the New Power Party (NPP) established itself as the third largest force in the Legislative Yuan. One of their elected five MPs, the lawyer Huang Kuo-chang, said after the success that the NPP “will not forget the principles of the sunflower movement and will not compromise”. James Soong's Qinmindang, which had almost been declared dead by various political observers (after various electoral defeats, Soong had already wanted to withdraw completely from politics in the past), did surprisingly well with 6.5% of the votes and thus won 3 mandates . All other parties stayed below the 5% threshold. An independent candidate was directly elected to the Legislative Yuan through the constituency, and a candidate from the Impartial Solidarity Union (NPSU) won one of the 6 seats reserved for the Taiwanese indigenous people.

Web links

• Information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan )
• FAZ.net January 16, 2016: Report from Taiwan
• sueddeutsche.de: Election report

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Party Votes. Central Election Commission, January 16, 2016, accessed on January 16, 2016 . 
2. ^ An election battle for the identity of Taiwan. BBC News, January 1, 2016, accessed January 3, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Timothy S. Rich: The Battle For a DPP Majority in the Legislative Yuan. University of Nottingham, December 8, 2015, accessed December 27, 2015 . 
4. ↑ RB: 新 黨 全球 資訊 網 - 新 黨 訊 "新 黨 不 選 政黨 票 了 嗎？" - 青 新 論壇 - 新聞 公告. (No longer available online.) Np.org.tw, archived from the original on November 22, 2015 ; Retrieved December 26, 2015 (Chinese). 
5. ^ Taiwan 'Sunflower' activists turn lawmakers in vote victory. (No longer available online.) France24.com, January 17, 2016, archived from the original on January 17, 2016 ; accessed on January 17, 2016 (English).