PDF(2.7mb) - 國家政策研究基金會

94 Taiwan Development Perspectives 2009
Introduction
On January 12, 2008 voters went to the polls to
elect a new Legislative Yuan. They voted in Taiwan’s
first general election under what is dubbed the single
constituency/two votes system. They were required to
cast two votes, one for a candidate and the other for a
political party. Altogether 64 regional legislators were
elected, one each from as many single constituencies.
The other 39 were chosen from among the nominees of
political parties by proportional representation. The
outcome of the legislative election was truly surprising.
None of the minor political parties won a seat. The
Kuomintang won 81 of the 113 seats in the Legislative
Yuan and a two-thirds majority. If those won by the
People First Party and the Non-partisan Solidarity Union,
which are both allies of the Kuomintang, are added,
the governing party will control 86 seats, or a
three-fourths majority, in the nation’s highest legislative
organ. The Democratic Progressive Party could manage
to hold only 27 seats. Though bipartisan politics is in
place, the ruling party overwhelms the opposition.
The Kuomintang is the predominant party in parliament.
New Look of Bipartisan Politics
The Democratic Progressive Party, holding only a
quarter of the seats in the Legislative Yuan, is almost
unable to contend with the ruling Kuomintang in legislative
action. A simple majority vote by lawmakers
present and voting passes bills and budgets as well as
adopts a non-confidence vote on the Cabinet. A
two-thirds majority vote can impeach or recall the
president and the vice president of the country. A
three-fourths major vote adopts a constitutional
amendment. The Kuomintang is capable of mustering
those votes. The Kuomintang can also prevent the opposition
party from proposing bills or resolutions. It is
very difficult for the opposition to stop the Kuomintang
legislative onslaught.
Huang Hsui-duan suggested in her study that the
confrontation in voting between the ruling and opposition
parties would be reduced if the former far outnumber
the latter in their respective seat-holding in the
Legislative Yuan, because the latter knows there is no
chance to win. 1 In fact, Democratic Progressive Party
legislators have refrained from challenging the Kuomintang
to put controversial bills or resolutions to a
vote. On the other hand, the Democratic Progressive
Party is encouraging supporters to take to the streets to
create controversial issues as a way to keep their power
base.
A few examples suffice. After the legislative election,
Frank Hsieh, the Democratic Progressive Party
presidential candidate, fired a broadside at his Kuomintang
rival Ma Ying-jeou for keeping a U.S. resident
card. After Ma was inaugurated as president in May, the
opposition party raised the question of Kuomintang
government officials keeping American “green cards”
and dual nationalities. The Office of the President and
the Executive Yuan had to come up with lists of officials
who once had green cards or Canada permanent
residence permits. In addition, the opposition has continuously
attacked the ruling party for raising fuel prices
and power rates, failing to increase domestic demand,
preventing an entero virus epidemic, and mismanaging
control over melamine-contaminated milk powder imported
from China.
In August and October, the Democratic Progressive
Party called large rallies to protest the Kuomintang
misrule since May. Tens of thousands of supporters
marched in protest in Taipei. According to a TVBS poll
conducted towards the end of October, a 43 percent
plurality of the respondents thought the mass rally of
October 25 was successful. The poll showed the support
for the opposition party increased by from 21 to 26
percent. In particular, its support from those aged 20 to
1 Huang Hsui-duan, ‘An Analysis of Party Interaction
from Roll-call Votes in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan:
The Third Term to the Fifth Term of the Legislative
Yuan’ Journal of Social Sciences and Philosophy
18:3 (Sept., 2006).