DPP takes ROC Legislature for first time

2016/01/18

The Democratic Progressive Party became the majority in the Legislature for the first time after winning 68 of the 113-seat ninth ROC Legislative Yuan in the Jan. 16 parliamentary elections.

The DPP took 49 electoral district seats, 18 at-large seats and one lowland indigenous seat, up from 27, 13 and zero, respectively, in the 2012 elections. This victory relegated the Kuomintang to main opposition party status with 35 legislative seats.

Assuming an absolute legislative majority is significant for the DPP, even though it held the most seats from 2001 to 2004. DPP Chairwoman and ROC president-elect Tsai Ing-wen expressed appreciation for the public’s backing and promised to turn the expectations of the people into reality.

With a record low turnout of 66.58 percent, voters cast ballots for 73 district legislators. Among them, the runner-up KMT won 20 seats, followed by the New Power Party with three seats and an independent with one seat.

For both the three lowland and highland indigenous seats, the KMT garnered two in each, with the remaining highland one going to the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union.

The party vote nationwide for the 34 at-large seats also saw a low turnout of 66.25 percent. Only the DPP, KMT, People First Party and NPP passed the 5 percent threshold for seat allocation. They gained 18, 11, three and two seats, respectively, for public support of 44.06 percent, 26.91 percent, 6.52 percent and 6.11 percent.

These outcomes saw the NPP—a rising political force formed by young reformers—replace the PFP as the third largest party with five seats in the next Legislature. NPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang was closely associated with the 2014 student protests over the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services.

In the last Legislature, the pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union had three at-large seats. But it failed to win any this time around.

According to the Central Election Commission, five parties are eligible to collect subsidies of NT$50 (US$1.49) per vote annually over the next four years as they obtained more than 3.5 percent of the total number cast. The fifth one is the New Party with 4.18 percent, a result that did not send any candidates to the Legislature.

The ninth ROC Legislature is set to be sworn in Feb. 1 in Taipei City.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=241347&ctNode=2194&mp=9)