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.
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.
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