2020 Taiwanese general election explained

Country:Taiwan
Election Date:11 January 2020
Previous Election:2016 Taiwanese general election
Previous Year:2016
Next Election:2024 Taiwanese general election
Next Year:2024
Opinion Polls:Opinion polling for the 2020 Taiwanese general election
Module:
Election Name:Presidential election
Embed:yes
Type:presidential
Previous Election:2016 Taiwanese presidential election
Previous Year:2016
Next Election:2024 Taiwanese presidential election
Next Year:2024
Turnout:74.90% (8.63)
Image1:Tsai Ing-wen election infobox.png
Nominee1:Tsai Ing-wen
Party1:Democratic Progressive Party
Running Mate1:Lai Ching-te
Popular Vote1:8,170,231
Percentage1:57.13%
Nominee2:Han Kuo-yu
Party2:KMT
Running Mate2:Chang San-cheng
Popular Vote2:5,522,119
Percentage2:38.61%
President
Before Election:Tsai Ing-wen
Before Party:Democratic Progressive Party
After Election:Tsai Ing-wen
After Party:Democratic Progressive Party
Module:
Embed:yes
Election Name:Legislative election
Seats For Election:All 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan
Majority Seats:57
Previous Election:2016
Next Election:2024
Turnout:74.86% (8.61 pp, party-list)
74.93% (8.59 pp, constituency)
Party1:Democratic Progressive Party
Percentage1:33.98
Seats1:61
Last Election1:68
Party2:Kuomintang
Percentage2:33.36
Seats2:38
Last Election2:35
Party3:Taiwan People's Party
Percentage3:11.22
Seats3:5
Last Election3:new
Party4:New Power Party
Percentage4:7.75
Seats4:3
Last Election4:5
Party5:Taiwan Statebuilding Party
Percentage5:3.16
Seats5:1
Last Election5:new
Party6:Independent
Leader6:
Percentage6:
Seats6:5
Last Election6:1
President of the Legislative Yuan
Before Election:Su Jia-chyuan
Before Party:Democratic Progressive Party
After Election:You Si-kun
After Party:Democratic Progressive Party

The 2020 Taiwanese general election was held on 11 January 2020 to elect the 15th President and Vice President of Taiwan, and all 113 members of the 10th Legislative Yuan.

Presidential election

See main article: 2020 Taiwanese presidential election. In the presidential election, voters elected the President and Vice President as a joint ticket. The process of presidential primary elections and nominations was held during the last six months of 2019.

Incumbent President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was previously elected in 2016, was eligible to seek for a second term. With 90% of the votes counted, Tsai Ing-wen was declared the victor, with 7.8 million votes.[1] She was inaugurated on 20 May 2020.

Legislative election

See main article: 2020 Taiwanese legislative election. The legislative election was held on 11 January 2020 for all 113 seats to the Legislative Yuan. The term of the Legislative Yuan will begin on 1 February 2020.

In the last election in 2016, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a comfortable majority over the Kuomintang (KMT) for the first time with 68 seats, while the KMT's representation sharply dropped to only 35 seats.

In this 2020 Taiwanese legislative election, the DPP retained their majority in the legislature winning 61 seats, along with DPP's presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen reelected with a record breaking historical high vote count.

The newly established Taiwan People's Party received more than 5% of the popular vote in the party-list proportional representation category, winning 5 seats in the legislature and more critically the ability to directly nominate its own presidential candidate in the 2024 Taiwan presidential election, as opposed to needing petition from nearly 300,000 eligible voters (1.5% of total registered voters from the most recently held legislative election), which can be a costly and labor-intensive process.

The People First Party did not win any seats in this election. Because the party did not pass the 5% hurdle in the proportional representation category, the party will not be able to directly nominate a presidential candidate in the next Taiwanese presidential election, which the People First Party was able to do in this and the previous presidential election in Taiwan.

Electoral interference

In December 2019 The Diplomat reported that the People’s Republic of China was actively engaged in political warfare efforts to influence and disrupt the 2020 general election.[2]

Self-proclaimed former Chinese spy William Wang, who defected to Australia, claimed that the Chinese Communist Party wanted to stop Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen from being re-elected.[3] After an investigation by authorities in Taiwan, Wang's claim were found to not be credible.[4] [5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Aristegui Noticias. La progresista Tsai Ing-Wen es reelecta presidenta de Taiwán. Jan 11, 2020. es. Progressive Tsai Ing-Wen is reelected president of Taiwan.
  2. Web site: Hsiao . Russell . CCP Influence Operations and Taiwan's 2020 Elections . magazine.thediplomat.com . The Diplomat . 4 December 2019.
  3. Web site: Chinese spy confirms China's involvement in Taiwan 2020 election. 23 November 2019. 25 November 2019. Taiwan News.
  4. News: 王立強爆向心夫婦涉共諜!扯出「韓國瑜總統後援會」22臉書 不起訴原因曝光 . 蘋果新聞網 . 12 November 2021.
  5. Web site: 捲入「王立強」共諜案 中國創新投資主席向心夫婦不起訴 . 中時新聞網.