A total of 412 legislative candidates have registered with the election authorities for the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday.
According to a notice published by the commission, a total of 79 legislators will be directly elected to the 113-seat legislature, with six of the 79 seats reserved for Aboriginal constituencies. The other 34 seats will be apportioned based on a separate vote for political parties, it added.
The law stipulates that 34 of the legislature’s 113 seats are reserved for legislators-at-large and awarded to parties in proportion to the number of votes they receive in the legislative election. A political party must win at least 5 percent of the votes cast in the election to be eligible for a share of the at-large seats.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Among the legislative candidates who registered with the commission on the last day of registration yesterday were the New Party and the Green Party Taiwan, which nominated six and two legislator-at-large candidates respectively.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have 34 and 33 nominees for legislator-at-large seats respectively, while the People First Party registered 18 and the Taiwan Solidarity Union registered 10.
Assessing the party’s electoral outlook, KMT officials yesterday said they expected the party to win over half the seats in the legislature, but it was still possible that its legislative majority would be small.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
In the current legislature, the KMT holds three-quarters of the 113 seats, while the DPP, which previously held 89 of the 225-seat legislature in 2004, has 32 seats.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday estimated that the DPP would win at least 50 of the legislative seats, including 16 or 17 legislator-at-large seats, and at least 34 seats in the district elections.
The party continues to work toward winning 57 seats so that it has a legislative majority, he added.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Additional reporting by Tseng Wei-chen
Photo: CNA
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