Election to the National Assembly of the Republic of China in 2005

← 1996Election to the
National Assembly 2005

(Voter turnout 23.4%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

42.5

38.9

7.1

6.1

0.9

4.5

DPP

KMT

TSU ^c

Qinmin ^d

Xindg

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 1996

 % p

 14th

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-14

+12.6

-10.8

+7.1

+6.1

-12.8

-2.2

DPP

KMT

TSU ^c

Qinmin ^d

Xindg

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^c The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) was established in 2001.

^d The Qinmindang (PFP) was founded in 2000.

The 2005 election for the National Assembly of the Republic of China took place on May 14, 2005 . It was the fourth and last election of a national assembly in the Republic of China.

prehistory

Decreasing role of the National Assembly

Under the 1946 Constitution of the Republic of China, the National Assembly was responsible for constitutional amendments and electing the president , while normal legislation was incumbent on the Legislative Yuan . After the democratization of the political situation in Taiwan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, voices were raised calling for the abolition of the National Assembly. In particular, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which saw the National Assembly as a long-standing, compliant instrument from the times of the Kuomintang sole rule and a relic of the earlier one-China policy , spoke out in favor of restricting the power to amend the constitution entirely to the legislative Yuan transfer. In 1994, with the introduction of direct election of the president, the National Assembly lost its right to presidential election.

The Taiwanese public's attention was increasingly focused on the Legislative Yuan, where the actual political debates took place, and the National Assembly only came into focus when the constitutional amendments were occasionally made. The National Assembly was increasingly only an executive organ of the constitutional amendments, while the actual debates about the content of the constitutional amendment had already taken place in advance in the legislative yuan and in public.

The previous election of the National Assembly took place on March 23, 1996 . This third national assembly passed amendments to several articles of the constitution in April 2000, which became law on April 24, 2000 with the signature of President Lee Teng-hui . These determined that the future fourth National Assembly should consist of 300 delegates elected by proportional representation. The end of the legislative period of the third National Assembly was set for May 19, 2000. A new National Assembly should only be elected ad hoc “as needed” when the Legislative Yuan proposed a bill to amend the Constitution. The National Assembly had thus become a mere executive body of the Legislative Yuan, and so it was not surprising that the number of voices demanding its complete abolition so that the Legislative Yuan could directly decide on constitutional changes increased. In particular, President Chen Shui-bian (DPP), who has been in office since 2000 , campaigned for this.

Legislative yuan constitutional amendment proposal

In the Legislative Yuan, a draft constitutional amendment was passed on August 23, 2004 and announced on August 26, 2004, which entrusted the transfer of all powers that the National Assembly had previously had - voting on constitutional amendments and impeachment proceedings against the President, as well as consent to Change of territory - provided for on the Legislative Yuan. This meant de facto the abolition of the National Assembly, as there was no longer any reason to convene it. The change was part of a larger constitutional amendment, in which, among other things, the right to vote for the legislative yuan was changed from the previous non-transferable individual vote (SNTV) to a voting system and at the same time the number of members of the legislative yuan was reduced from 225 to 113. The bill was passed with the votes of the Kuomintang, Qinmindang and DPP. The smaller parties, TSU and NPSU , voted against, as they saw themselves disadvantaged by the new electoral law.

According to the constitutional provisions, a new ad hoc national assembly had to be elected in order to bring the proposed constitutional amendments into force.

Election and election result

Composition of the elected National Assembly: DPP 127 KMT 117 TSU 21 Qinmindang 18 Xindang 3 NPSU 2 TAIP 1 Other 11









The election of the new National Assembly took place on May 14, 2005 by proportional representation. The election was marked by massive disinterest on the part of the electorate and voter turnout was a record low of only 23.4 percent. Voter disinterest was largely attributed to voters having little interest in relatively abstract electoral issues or not understanding the proposed changes. Because of the low turnout and because there was no threshold clause , a relatively small number of voters was enough to win one of the 300 seats, so that several small parties that had been able to mobilize their voters entered the National Assembly.

Political party		be right		Seats
		number	%
	Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)	1,647,791	42.52%	127
	Kuomintang (KMT)	1,508,384	38.92%	117
	Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU)	273.147	7.05%	21st
	Qinmindang	236.716	6.11%	18th
	150-person association of Jhang Ya Jhong ( 張亞 中等 150 人 聯盟 )	65,081	1.68%	5
	Chinese People's Party ( 中國 民眾 黨 )	41,940	1.08%	3
	Xindang	34,253	0.88%	3
	Impartial Solidarity Union (NPSU)	25.162	0.65%	2
	Peasant Party ( 農民 黨 )	15,516	0.40%	1
	Taiwan Independence Party (TAIP)	11,500	0.30%	1
	Citizens' Party ( 公民 黨 )	8609	0.22%	1
	20-person union of Wang Ting Sing ( 王廷興 等 20 人 聯盟 )	7499	0.19%	1

On June 7, 2005, the proposed constitutional amendment was approved by the National Assembly by 249 votes to 48 with the required three-quarters majority. The Kuomintang and DPP voted in favor, but the small parties TSU, NPSU and Xindang , to which the Qinmindang had joined after losing votes in the election of the legislative yuan in December 2004 , voted against it. Two MPs abstained and one vote was invalid. The constitutional amendment came into effect with the signature of President Chen Shui-bian on June 10, 2005.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Office of the President of the Republic of China, accessed November 23, 2018 . 
2. ^ ^{A b c} Chi Huang: Electoral System Change and Its Effects on the Party System in Taiwan . In: Christopher H. Achen, TY Wang (Ed.): The Taiwan Voter . University of Michigan Press, 2017, ISBN 978-0-472-12303-2 , doi : 10.3998 / mpub.9375036 (English, online ).
3. ^ Constitutional changes approved in Taiwan. The New York Times, June 8, 2005, accessed November 23, 2018 .