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2004 Legislative Yuan Election

The election for the 225 legislators of the Sixth Legislative Yuan is slated for December 11, 2004. Among them, 168 members will be elected from the special municipalities, counties, and cities in Taiwan (at least one member from each county and city). Four members each will be elected from among the lowland and highland aborigines, eight from among overseas Chinese, and forty-one from the nationwide constituency. Members representing overseas Chinese and the nationwide constituency will be elected according to the formula for proportional representation among political parties.

According to the Central Election Commission, a total of 493 candidates have registered for the legislature election. Among the 386 candidates registered to compete for the 176 seats for local and aboriginal constituencies, 92 are recommended by the DPP, 74 by the KMT, 41 by the PFP, 30 by the TSU, 26 by the NPSU, 4 by Taiwan Independence Party, 1 by the NP, 1 by the Taiwan Wisdom-Action Aspirant Party 臺灣慧行志工黨, and 1 by Labor and Education Workers’ Alliance 工教聯盟, with the remaining 116 running as independents.

Another 89 candidates have been recommended by six political parties to compete for 41 nationwide constituency seats, which will be decided by proportional representation. Of these candidates, 31 are nominated by the DPP, 24 by the KMT, 19 by the PFP, 10 by the TSU, and 5 by the NPSU. Another 18 candidates are competing for 8 overseas Chinese seats, with 6 candidates from the DPP, 5 from the KMT, 5 from the PFP, 1 from the TSU, and 1 from the NPSU.

The election will be held nationwide in 29 electoral districts. Taipei and Kaohsiung special municipalities each contain two constituencies, while Taipei County has three. All other counties and cities are single constituencies. The campaigns run from December 1 to December 10, with each campaign day starting at seven in the morning and ending at ten in the evening. Public forums will be held during the campaign period for candidates to present their platforms.

The 2004 Legislative Yuan election will be the first major election held after the 2004 presidential election. As its results will be decisive to Taiwan’s political landscapes over the next three years, the election has drawn considerable attention from the international community. The following chart shows how the various parties have fared over the past three Legislative Yuan elections:

Party Affiliation of Elected Legislators since 1995
 

Election Year	DPP	KMT	PFP	TSU	NP	Other	None	Total Seats
2001	87	68	46	13	1	1	9	225
1998	70	123	n/a	n/a	11	9	12	225
1995	54	85	n/a	n/a	21	0	4	164

Source: Central Election Commission

◎Schedule for the 2004 Election

September 27: publication of the election bulletin showing election categories, quotas, electoral districts, polling date, start and end time for polling and the upper limits for campaign expenditures

October 4: announcement of the candidate registration date, the deposit due for candidate registration and other requirements

October 8~12: registration by candidates

November 25: deadline for announcement of local polling station locations

November 25~29: display of voter lists at village offices for possible corrections

November 30: announcement of candidate list, start and end date of the election campaign, and start and end time of each day’s campaign activities

December 1: deadline for publication of election bulletins

December 1~10: provision of government-organized forums for candidates to present their platforms

December 8: deadline for distribution of election communiqués and voting bulletins

December 11: polling day

December 17: announcement of election results

◎Electoral Districts, Quotas for Election, and Ceiling for Campaign Expenditures

I. Some 168 people are to be elected from all constituencies. The constituencies and their number of seats are as follows:

II. Eight members for aborigines are to be elected, whose constituencies and quotas are listed below:
 

Constituency	No. of Seats	Campaign Fund Cap (millions of NT$)
Lowland	4	6.555
Highland	4	6.627
Total	8

Source: Central Election Commission, September 2004

III. Eight members representing overseas Chinese are to be elected by proportional representation. Where one party wins between five and ten seats, at least one of its seats must be held by a female member.

Forty-one members are to be elected from the nationwide constituency by proportional representation. Again, where a party wins between five and ten seats, at least one of its seats must be held by a female member. Where the number exceeds ten, one seat out of each additional ten shall also be reserved for a female member.