KMT maintains majority but loses seats in legislative race
ROC Central News Agency
2012/01/14 23:25:01
Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) The ruling Kuomintang (KMT) managed to retain its majority in the Legislative Yuan, capturing 64 of the 113 seats up for grabs in Saturday's elections.
The result left the KMT with a smaller majority than it has had over the past four years. The party currently controls 72 seats in the current legislature, which will be dissolved at the end of this month.
The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won 40 seats, compared to 32 the party currently commands.
The remaining seats were secured by the People First Party (PFP), which took three, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), also with three, and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, which won two. The other seat was taken by an independent candidate.
Under the current "single-member constituency, two-vote" system, legislators were elected in two different ways. Seventy-nine were directly elected to represent electoral districts, while 34 "at-large" seats were allocated based on a separate vote for political parties.
A party needed to get at least a 5 percent share of the vote in the party election to pick up "at-large" seats, designed to give smaller parties a chance to win representation in Taiwan's Legislature.
Only Taiwan's two main parties, the KMT and DPP, won at-large seats in 2008, but on Saturday, both the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the PFP also surpassed the 5 percent threshold.
(By Sofia Wu)
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