Presidential elections in Taiwan

The election of the President and Vice President of the Republic of China (Chinese: 中華民國總統、副總統選舉) is a direct election by the citizens of Taiwan. The most recent election took place on January 16, 2016.

• The Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act ^[1] states that a candidate for the President must be a Taiwanese citizen, at least 40 years old, and a resident of Taiwan for a period of no less than 15 years with physical presence for not less than 6 consecutive months. (The citizenship refers to household registration in the Free area of the Republic of China)

• The following persons shall not be registered as candidates for the President:
  • Military personnel
  • Election officials
  • People who hold foreign nationality or who hold residency of the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong and Macau)
  • People who restored their nationality or acquired nationality by neutralization

• The President and Vice President are nominated on a joint ticket. Political parties which have gained at least 5% of the votes at the last presidential or legislature election may nominate a set of candidates directly. For the 2012 and 2016 elections, only Democratic Progressive Party and Kuomintang are qualified to nominate candidates through this rule in the elections of 2012 and 2016. Alternatively, candidates may be nominated by a petition signed by eligible voters numbering no less than 1.5% of electors at the last legislature election. (This equals 252,848 signatures for the 2012 election.)^[1]

List of presidential elections in Taiwan

Order	Election year	Winner	Other major candidates
9th	1996	Lee Teng-hui, Lien Chan (Kuomintang) – 54.0%	Peng Ming-min, Frank Hsieh (Democratic Progressive) – 21.1% Lin Yang-kang, Hau Pei-tsun (Independent) – 14.9% Chen Li-an, Wang Ching-feng (Independent) – 9.9%
10th	2000	Chen Shui-bian, Annette Lu (Democratic Progressive) – 39.3%	James Soong, Chang Chau-hsiung (Independent) – 36.8% Lien Chan, Vincent Siew (Kuomintang) – 23.1%
11th	2004	Chen Shui-bian, Annette Lu (Democratic Progressive) – 50.11%	Lien Chan, James Soong (Kuomintang) – 49.89%
12th	2008	Ma Ying-jeou, Vincent Siew (Kuomintang) – 58.45%	Frank Hsieh, Su Tseng-chang (Democratic Progressive) – 41.55%
13th	2012	Ma Ying-jeou, Wu Den-yih (Kuomintang) – 51.60%	Tsai Ing-wen, Su Jia-chyuan (Democratic Progressive) – 45.63% James Soong, Lin Ruey-shiung (People First) – 2.77%
14th	2016	Tsai Ing-wen, Chen Chien-Jen (Democratic Progressive) – 56.1%	Eric Chu, Wang Ju-hsuan (Kuomintang) – 31.0% James Soong, Hsu Hsin-ying (People First) – 12.8%

Electoral maps of direct presidential elections of Taiwan.

Comparison of the vote percentages in the direct presidential elections.     : Democratic Progressive Party candidates     : Kuomintang candidates     : People First Party candidates, or independents predecessors.     : New Party candidates or endorsement         : Other independents

See also

• Elections in Taiwan
• President of the Republic of China
• List of Presidents of the Republic of China
• Vice President of the Republic of China
• List of Vice Presidents of the Republic of China

References

1. "Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act".