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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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