Eight is an auspicious number in Taiwan for its association with success and luck. January 13, 2024, is Taiwan’s eighth direct presidential election. The 74.9 percent voter turnout in the 2020 election, among the highest in the democratic world, signifies clearly that Taiwan’s 23 million people cherish their egalitarian system and treasure the success the country has had in developing its democratic election procedures and maintaining peaceful power transitions.
Under election legislation, any parties that receive more than 5 percent of the total vote share in the latest presidential or legislative election are eligible to take part and field candidates. Other contenders need to offer a petition signed by eligible voters numbering no less than 1.5 percent of total voters in the latest presidential and vice presidential election. Eligibility in the 2024 election required around 290,000 signatories. After these are vetted and validated by the Legislative Yuan’s Central Election Commission, the nominee can register as a candidate.
In 2023, the parties eligible to field candidates in the 2024 elections were the ruling Democratic Progressive Party; the Kuomintang, which is the largest opposition party in Legislative Yuan; the 2015-established New Power Party; and the 2019-established Taiwan People’s Party. In addition, two independent candidates gained the requisite number of verified signatories.
The president and vice president are directly elected by simple majority vote and can serve up to two four-year terms, while the premier, or head of the Executive Yuan, is appointed by the president. This year’s presidential election is combined with legislative elections for the 113 seats in the unicameral Legislative Yuan. Lawmakers also serve four-year terms and seats are filled using two main methodologies: majoritarian single member districts (SMD) and a proportional representation (PR) party-list system. There is a further system for Indigenous voters.
Boundaries for electoral districts were drawn up in 2007 when the current system was implemented, and at the time, each contained roughly 320,000 registered residents, with the intent being for each of the 73 districts to represent a similar number of citizens in the legislature. These 73 seats are elected by SMD vote numbers. Another 34 seats are filled with a PR method like those used in Sweden and Germany. They are awarded to political parties for legislators-at-large as a counter balance to the majoritarian system, with voters casting a second ballot for a party in a nationwide constituency where a 50 percent female and 50 percent male quota for candidates applies, rendering the legislature more representative of the country as a whole.
To ensure representation for Indigenous peoples, those with Indigenous status vote for Indigenous candidates instead of voting for contenders in an SMD so that their vote is not diluted among the majority Han population. Under this system, the Indigenous communities’ six seats form 5.31 percent of the legislature, while their voters comprise 2.34 percent of the total population. This empowers Indigenous legislators to progress policies supported by their communities.
As a young democracy whose first direct presidential elections were held in 1996, Taiwan’s election system is still evolving, with untrammeled debate across all forms of media and public referendums on issues such as lowering the voter age. Support for democratic governance remains unequivocal, and expression of a wide spectrum of political views is tolerated and even expected in a country where increased space for civil society, freedom of assembly, freedom of religious institutions and freedom of the press are sacred and integral to the democratic process.