The constitutional amendment on legislative reform and downsizing passed in the legislature on Aug. 23 this year, which means that the nation will adopt the "single-member district, two-vote system" in the elections for the Seventh Legislature in 2007, and there will be only 113 legislative seats, reduced from the current 225 seats.
The new changes will take effect during elections for the Seventh Legislature. The lawmakers elected for the Seventh Legislature will enter office in 2008, and the lawmakers' tenures beginning with the Seventh Legislature would be lengthened from three to four years.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Out of the 113 seats, 73 will be regional legislators, with each city and country electing at least one. Plains Aborigines will have three seats, and mountain Aborigines also three.
Legislators-at-large and overseas Chinese legislator seats will comprise 34 seats, which will be distributed to each party according to the proportion of the party votes they obtain.
Only those parties with more than 5 percent of the total votes cast will be given legislator-at-large and overseas Chinese legislator seats, and at least 50 percent of these seats will be reserved for women.
The ad hoc National Assembly will also be abolished, and after it is abolished, bills regarding constitutional amendments and territory changes will need to be ratified by the public via referendum after being passed by the legislature.
The amendment bill was promulgated on Aug 26, and the last ad hoc National Assembly representatives have to be chosen in late May next year the latest to ratify the amendment.
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