1980 Taiwanese legislative election

The fourth supplementary elections for the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan were held in Taiwan on 6 December 1980.[1]

Background

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Originally these elections were scheduled for December 1978. They were postponed after the United States terminated diplomatic relations with the Republic of China just days before the elections were planned. They were subsequently held in December 1980. President Chiang Ching-kuo made agreements with Tangwai leaders and other independent politicians so they could compete for seats with Kuomintang candidates. These elections were the first competitive elections for Taiwan on a national level.

Compared with the last supplementary elections in 1972 for the National Assembly and 1975 for the Legislative Yuan, the number of eligible seats for the National Assembly increased from 53 to 76 and for the Legislative Yuan from 52 to 97. Of these, 70 seats representing Taiwan Province and the special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung were to be elected directly. The remaining 27 seats representing overseas nationals were chosen by the President.

Results

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Turnout for both the supplementary elections of the National Assembly and the Legislative Yuan was 66,4%. Of the newly elected members to the National Assembly, 61 belonged to the Kuomintang, one to 1 the Chinese Youth Party and 14 were independents. Of the 70 directly elected delegates to the Legislative Yuan, 56 belonged to the Kuomintang and 14 were independents. Of these independents 9 could be counted as belonging to the Tangwai movement. All chosen were born Taiwanese except for 14 (7 in each of the legislative bodies) who were born on the Mainland or from parents from the Mainland.

Legislative Yuan

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PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Kuomintang4,721,30174.0756+14
Chinese Youth Party57,9190.910–1
China Democratic Socialist Party5,8160.090New
Independents1,588,72124.9314+5
Total6,373,757100.0070+18
Valid votes6,373,75796.80
Invalid/blank votes210,5813.20
Total votes6,584,338100.00
Registered voters/turnout9,921,96566.36
Source: Executive Yuan, Dong[2]

By constituency

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Constituency Seats Electorate Turnout % Party Votes % Seats
won
Taipei City 8 1,168,405 758,113 64.88 Kuomintang 520,579 70.18 6
Chinese Youth Party 12,044 1.62 0
China Democratic Socialist Party 1,044 0.14 0
Independents 208,102 28.06 2
Kaohsiung City 5 571,795 386,320 67.56 Kuomintang 245,577 64.94 4
Independents 132,605 35.06 1
Taiwan I 8 1,437,965 894,745 62.22 Kuomintang 608,496 69.89 5
Independents 262,239 30.11 3
Taiwan II 6 1,072,170 743,124 69.31 Kuomintang 549,119 76.22 5
Chinese Youth Party 9,338 1.30 0
Independents 162,009 22.48 1
Taiwan III 9 1,586,509 1,081,325 68.16 Kuomintang 800,669 76.66 8
Chinese Youth Party 7,455 0.71 0
Independents 236,263 22.63 1
Taiwan IV 8 1,547,649 955,259 61.72 Kuomintang 603,115 65.24 6
Chinese Youth Party 6,764 0.73 0
Independents 314,509 34.03 2
Taiwan V 5 906,545 607,543 67.02 Kuomintang 468,368 79.62 4
Independents 119,917 20.38 1
Taiwan VI 2 233,791 146,302 62.59 Kuomintang 112,469 79.47 2
China Democratic Socialist Party 4,772 3.37 0
Independents 24,278 17.16 0
Fujian 1 20,460 19,384 94.74 Kuomintang 19,228 100 1
Highland Aborigine 1 82,247 60,414 73.45 Kuomintang 58,803 100 1
Lowland Aborigine 1 66,570 42,752 64.22 Kuomintang 40,635 100 1
Farmers 4 Kuomintang 232,595 79.71 4
Chinese Youth Party 19,057 6.53 0
Independents 40,150 13.76 0
Fishermen 2 Kuomintang 72,640 100 2
Workers 4 Kuomintang 249,679 73.28 3
Chinese Youth Party 3,261 0.96 0
Independents 87,794 25.76 1
Industrial group 2 Kuomintang 20,947 100 2
Business group 2 Kuomintang 69,364 100 2
Education group 2 Kuomintang 49,018 98.29 2
Independents 855 1.71 0
Source: Dong[2]

National Assembly

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PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Kuomintang61+18
China Democratic Socialist Party1New
Independents14+4
Total76+23
Valid votes6,333,06596.38
Invalid/blank votes237,7823.62
Total votes6,570,847100.00
Registered voters/turnout9,891,06866.43
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

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  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p535 ISBN 0-19-924959-8
  2. ^ a b Dong, Xiangfei (1984). The General Conditions Regarding Elections in the Republic of China.

Further reading

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Copper, John F. and George P. Chen (1984), Taiwan’s Elections. Political Development and Democratization in the Republic of China, [Baltimore, Md.], Occasional Papers/Reprints Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, no. 5-1984 (64), ISBN 0-942182-66-9