Despite the fact that 69 out of 160 serving legislators failed to retain their seats in the next legislature in Saturday's election, more than 80 percent of the 113-member new legislature will be made up of familiar faces.
Apart from the 69 lawmakers who failed in their re-election attempts, another 57 decided not to run, making a total of 126 lawmakers that will be departing the legislature.
However, since 91 serving legislators won re-election and three of the new legislators -- the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) and Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) -- have served as lawmakers at some point in the past, more than 80 percent of the new legislature will be comprised of "old faces."
Among those successfully re-elected, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Ching-chun (
Among the casualties were senior lawmakers from across party lines.
These included Tainan County KMT legislator Hung Yu-chin (洪玉欽), who had already served eight terms; the People First Party's Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) from Taichung City, who had served six terms; and five-timers Lee Sen-zong (李顯榮) and Chao Yung-ching (趙永清) of the DPP -- both of Taipei County -- and the KMT's Ho Jyh-huei (
The most senior DPP Legislator, six-time legislator Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) also lost his seat because he was ranked fifteenth on the party's at-large list.
The DPP only secured 14 at-large seats. Four-time KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-po (
Most of the pan-green camp lawmakers who switched party affiliation ahead of the election lost, with legislators Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙), Huang Chung-yung (黃宗源) and Ho Min-hao (何敏豪) -- who jumped ship from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to the DPP -- all failing in their re-election bids.
Lee Sen-zong (
On the other hand, only one of the six People First Party (PFP) lawmakers who ran under the KMT banner, Ko Shu-min (
Among the 60 DPP lawmakers seeking re-election, 41 -- including 35 in the district elections and six on the at-large list -- failed. As for the PFP, two of its three lawmakers seeking re-election failed, while all three of the TSU's re-election seekers lost.
For the KMT, only 13 out of 81 lawmakers seeking re-election were unsuccessful.
All parties that failed to obtain 5 percent of votes cast -- all of them except for the KMT and DPP -- are unable to recommend candidates for presidential and vice presidential elections. additional reporting by maggie lu
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