More than 350 candidates are to vie for 73 directly elected seats in the legislative elections on Saturday next week, the Central Election Commission announced yesterday.
A total of 354 legislative district candidates have registered to compete in the nation’s 73 electoral districts, a number that is more than 30 percent higher than the 269 candidates who competed in the 2012 elections.
Several new parties have also nominated candidates to run in the legislative elections, including the New Power Party, the Republican Party, and the Faith and Hope League.
Photo: CNA
Many of the parties were formed last year out of disappointment with the performances of larger parties.
The Legislative Yuan has a total of 113 seats. In addition to the 73 legislative seats up for election in “first-past-the-post” campaigns, there are six seats reserved for Aboriginal candidates and the remaining 34 seats are for legislator-at-large candidates.
There are 23 Aboriginal candidates competing for the six seats.
The legislator-at-large seats are to be allocated in proportion to the total number of votes a party gets, but it must receive at least 5 percent of the vote to qualify for a seat.
A total of 18 political parties are competing for legislator-at-large seats, including the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), the People First Party (PFP) and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union — all of which are now represented in the legislature.
In 2012, only 11 parties nominated candidates for legislator-at-large seats.
Because of the large increase in the number of participating parties, the size of the ballot paper to be used in the vote has increased to 73cm long and 15cm wide.
In the 2012 legislative elections, the KMT won 64 seats and the DPP garnered 40 seats. The PFP and TSU each won three seats, while the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union won two and the remaining seat went to an independent.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS