2024 Taiwan election primer: Who’s running, voting, and counting
It was the local-born protégé of the Generalissimo’s heir Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), technocrat Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who won in Taiwan’s first direct presidential election. That took place 28 years ago, in 1996, nine years after martial law was finally lifted. The Chinese Nationalists held the presidency in Taiwan for more than five decades before the first peaceful transition of power took place with the Democratic Progressive Party’s 2000 presidential election victory.
The outcome of Taiwan’s 2024 elections will shape the future path of the island country. In our direct electoral system, citizens can vote once they turn 20 years old. That right can be exercised by casting this year’s three ballots for presidential (1), party (1), and legislative representation (113). My quick guide to how Taiwan’s general elections work — and what to bring as a voter.
THE PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
In Taiwan, any citizen aged 40 or above can run for presidency. The disqualifiers are:
- Having resided here for less than 6 consecutive months
- Having one’s nationality restored (or having acquired nationality by naturalization)
- Having a passport from the PRC, Hong Kong, or Macau
- Having a criminal record, a bankruptcy history, limited civil rights, or under guardianship
- Having a foreign nationality, engaged in election affairs, or in active military service
In the order of their ballot numbers, the three political parties aiming to capture the Taiwanese presidency in 2024 are:
Taiwan’s People Party (TPP)
A relatively young political party positioning itself as a charismatic third-party option for those frustrated with the current state of Taiwan, it emphasizes pragmatism over ideology and prides itself on embracing science. Founded on August 6, 2019.
Ballot order #1: Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), 64, and Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈), 45
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
The first major opposition party of Taiwan that bloomed from the anti-establishment Tangwai movement against the Nationalists’ past militant reign, it now carries the weight and expectations of being viewed as “the establishment.” Founded on September 26, 1986.
Ballot order #2: William Lai (賴清德), 64, and Bi-khim Hsiao (蕭美琴), 52
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
Steward and defender of the Republic of China, a representative framework developed by revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) in the late 1890s to overturn imperial Qing and govern China, an identity it has held steadfast to despite the Nationalists’ retreat from China to Taiwan in 1949.
Ballot order #3: Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), 66, and Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), 73
A ballot number is assigned to each party through a lottery draw conducted by the Central Election Committee (CEC); the lots are drawn in the order of the candidate’s registration date.
Vote #1 for the Ko-Wu ticket, #2 for the Lai-Hsiao team, and #3 for the Hou-Jaw duo.
THE PARTY & LEGISLATIVE VOTE
389 political parties have been registered in Taiwan, including the New Party (新黨, against Taiwan independence since 1993) and the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (台灣基進, a Taiwan-loyal opposition launched in 2013) that can be considered purist offshoots of the KMT and DPP, respectively. The New Power Party (時代力量) synergized from the student-led Sunflower movement in 2014’s clash over the Nationalist government’s preferential trade agreements with China has since lost many of its prominent members.
There’s also Green Party Taiwan (台灣綠黨, official member of the Global Greens network committed to social and environmental justice since 1996), the Social Democratic Party (社會民主黨, a progressive third party championing liberty, equality, and solidarity since 2015), the People First Party (親民黨, supporter of closer economic, political ties with China since 2000), and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (台灣團結聯盟, campaigning since 2001 on behalf of the farming and working classes).
Niche parties include the Stock Party Taiwan (台灣股票黨, advocate of greater protection and benefits for stock market investors), the MiLinguall Party (臺灣雙語無法黨, hopeful reformer of Taiwan’s bilingual education), Taiwan Obasan Political Equality Party (小民參政歐巴桑聯盟, women for children, labor, family rights), and the Taiwan Mahjong Greatest Party (台灣麻將最大黨, proponent of using mahjong to empower senior citizens). A Taiwan Number One Party (台灣吾黨) existed from 2001 to 2020.
Sixteen parties are campaigning for a party vote this year, in which only those that capture at least 5% in proportional representation votes will go on to receive seats in Taiwan’s parliament, the Legislative Yuan. These 34 legislators-at-large are joined by 79 district legislators elected through a combination of first-past-the-post and nontransferable voting. See the 2024 list of potential parliamentarians vying for 113 spots here.
NOTABLE INCIDENTS SO FAR
The dropouts
Foxconn’s Terry Gou (郭台銘), 73, and actress Tammy Darshana Lai (賴佩霞), 60, of the hit Netflix series “Wave Makers” (2023) discontinued their presidential campaign on the week of candidacy registration after taking into account unfavorable polling results. Chairman Gou had to place a NT$1 million (US$31,277) deposit before securing the required petition signatures to run as an independent.
The plans to withdraw were abrupt; advertisements featuring the businessman’s “Good Timing (改變好時機)” slogan still adorned fleets of public buses and cabs for weeks after Gou terminated his presidency bid. Some sources say these marketing arrangements were negotiated for display until January 2024.
Several individuals have been detained on suspicion of bribery to procure the signatures Gou needed for the qualification process — like the Pingtung Council speaker who has been detained in a NT$200-per-signature-buying case. The tycoon submitted over 1.03 million signatures, tripling the requirement of 289,667 that represented 1.5% of eligible voters from the 2020 presidential elections. However, 130,000 of the 1,036,778 signatures were problematic, including 5,271 that are believed to have been forged.
Some of the most viral moments from the Gou-Lai campaign included a series of TikTok videos where the chairman flexes his physical prowess by overturning a table and dancing with a social influencer granny while boasting about “no one makes more money than me (我姓郭，沒人賺的比我多).”
Property wars
The three presidential candidates are embroiled in a spat over real estate woes. William Lai (DPP) is questioned over zoning issues regarding his family home built on former mining land in New Taipei. The wife of Hou Yu-ih (KMT) owns a 103-suite property used as student housing for Yangmingshan’s Chinese Culture University that is priced higher than Taipei 101 by unit and managed by Cynthia Wu’s (TPP) family-owned Shin Kong conglomerate. Ko Wen-je (TPP) is one of eight owners who operate a parking lot built on agricultural land that was paved over potential construction debris in Hsinchu.
End of an era
The 2024 election marks the first time that former KMT Secretary-General James Soong (宋楚瑜) stopped running for presidency. The former English secretary to the Generalissimo’s son Chiang Ching-kuo and founder of the People’s First Party (PFP) ran for presidency five times between 2000 and 2020 and made a bid for the Taipei mayorship in 2006.
WHO CAN VOTE
19.5 million eligible voters aged 20 or over, including 1.03 million first-time voters.
No active registration is required “with the exception of citizens residing overseas during the Presidential and Vice Presidential election”; they must submit an application and fly back to vote and the CEC has approved 4,120 such requests by Dec. 27, 2023. Taiwan still relies on paper ballots — absentee and electronic voting have not yet been adopted over Chinese interference fears — and the election results are tallied manually by the eve of voting day.
Polling staff comprise 50% active civil servants and public school teachers. Votes are counted out loud with vigor by each polling station’s staff and affirmed by citizen observers. There are concerns, however, that such practices essentially “oust” the political affiliations and infringe upon the privacy of voters at low-turnout stations, especially for Indigenous voters.
17,794 polling stations will service the 2024 election.
WHAT TO BRING
What you’ll need on Jan. 13, 2024:
National ID card (passport accepted only for pre-registered nationals flying from abroad)
Election notice slip (mailed to your household address specifying which station you’re required to vote at; many are expected to flock home next weekend)
Personal chop (although signatures and finger prints are accepted)
The latter is for registration purposes at the voting station only. A special, peace-sign-looking chop will be provided for all voters to stamp their ballots. Acclaimed essayist Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) and actress Brigitte Lin (林青霞), recipient of last November’s Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award, were among those who have had unwittingly used their personal chops instead of the official chop before, rendering their ballots disqualified that year.
The three ballots of 2024:
Pink — your presidential and vice presidential vote
White — your party vote
Light yellow, green, or blue — your legislative vote depending on your household registration identity; yellow denotes non-Indigenous representation, green is reserved for mountainous Indigenous representation, and blue for plains Indigenous representation.
Photography is not allowed inside polling stations. Kids aged 6 or younger can accompany a parent into the voting booth. All naturalized citizens can vote, and the CEC provides voting guides for new immigrants in English, Indonesian, Khmer, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Thai. Audio bulletins in Mandarin/Taiwanese/Hakka, barrier-free access to polling stations, sign-language interpretation in policy presentations and televised debates, and Braille ballot slips are among the services provided for voters with disabilities.
How ballots are judged
Here are 28 examples of valid votes:
Here are 27 examples of invalid votes:
