Elections in Taiwan

Elections in Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, are held on national and local level. On the national level, the head of state, the President, and all members of the national legislature, the Legislative Yuan, are elected directly by the citizens of Taiwan. National elections were synchronized into a single day from 2012 and are held every four years.

Local self-government bodies including special municipalities, counties, cities, townships, county-controlled cities, indigenous districts and villages have their own elections. The head as well as the legislators of the self-government bodies are all directly elected by the people who have registered their residency in the respective territory. Local elections were synchronized into a single day from 2014 and are held every four years.

Elections are supervised by the Central Election Commission (CEC), an independent agency under the central government, with the municipality, county and city election commissions under its jurisdiction. The minimum voting age is twenty years. Voters must satisfy a four-month residency requirement before being allowed to cast a ballot.

History

The government of the Republic of China, led by Kuomintang, retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War with the Communist Party of China. In that time, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion was enforced and largely restricted many civil and political rights including voting right of the Taiwanese people. In addition, the Martial law in Taiwan also set most actions of oppositions as illegal. From 1949 to 1990, the President was elected by the first National Assembly which had never been reelected since 1948. The Legislative Yuan had also never been reelected since 1947. The provincial Governor and municipal Mayors were appointed by the central government. The direct elections were only held in the local leaders lower than county level, and legislators lower than the provincial level.

From the 1990s, a series of democratic and governmental reforms were implemented in Taiwan. Additional Articles of the Constitution were passed to grant full civil and political rights to the Taiwanese people (officially the people of the Free area of the Republic of China). Under the Additional Articles, the President and the national legislators shall be directly elected. The first congressional elections on Taiwan were held in 1991 for National Assembly and 1992 for Legislative Yuan. The first election for provincial Governors and municipality Mayors was in 1994. Most importantly, Taiwan held the first direct election of the President and Vice President in 1996.

At the same time, the government also undertook to simplify the public sector. The provincial government was streamlined as a subsidiary of the central government in 1998 and no longer holds elections for the Governor and the provincial legislators since then. The regular National Assembly was ceased in 2000 and fully defunct in 2005. The number of members of the Legislative Yuan was reduced to 113 from 2008.

In recent years, the government is further working on synchronizing the date of the elections into two key dates: national elections and local elections.

• The national elections elect the President and Vice President as well as the 113 Legislators.
• The local elections elect 11,130 local officials who serve in self-government bodies.

Types and schedules of election

Type		National elections	Local elections
Executive positions		President and Vice President	Municipal Mayors Chiefs of indigenous districts in municipalities County Magistrates (City Mayors) Township Chiefs Chiefs of village (borough)
Legislative seats		Legislators	Municipal Councilors Councilors of indigenous districts in municipalities County (City) Councilors Township Councilors
Last date of	Elections	January 16, 2016	November 29, 2014
	Inaugurations	February 1, 2016 (Legislators) May 20, 2016 (President and Vice President)	December 25, 2014
Next date of	Elections	January 2020	November 2018
	Inaugurations	February 1, 2020 (Legislators) May 20, 2020 (President and Vice President)	December 25, 2018

List of elections by date

The full election list since the first direct election of the President and Vice President.

Year	National elections		Local elections		Referendums
	Presidential	Congressional	Municipal	County and city
1996	President 1996	National Assembly 1996
1997				Local 1997
1998		Legislator 1998	Municipal 1998
1999
2000	President 2000
2001		Legislator 2001		Local 2001
2002			Municipal 2002
2003
2004	President 2004	Legislator 2004			Referendum 2004
2005		National Assembly 2005		Local 2005
2006			Municipal 2006
2007
2008	President 2008	Legislator 2008			Referendums 2008 (Jan, March)
2009				Local 2009
2010			Municipal 2010
2011
2012	President 2012	Legislator 2012
2013
2014			Local 2014
2015
2016	President 2016	Legislator 2016
2017
2018			Local 2018
2019

See also

• History of Taiwan
• February 28 Incident

• Administrative divisions of Taiwan
• Electoral calendar
• Voting system

• Central Election Commission (Taiwan)
• List of political parties in the Republic of China
• History of the Republic of China
• Politics of the Republic of China

External links

• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• Central Election Commission
• Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Additional Articles of Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan)