Note: The official definition of “Plains aborigine” (平地原住民) as described in the Status of Indigenous People’s Act must be distinguished from the common phrase of “plains tribes” (平埔族 or 平埔原住民), used in English to describe the indigenous communities historically living in the western lowlands of Taiwan. To a great extent, members of the “plains tribes” (and their present-day descendants) were Sinicized and did not register as aborigines. They are not recognized by the ROC government as one of Taiwan’s 16 official aboriginal groups today, though a movement exists in some quarters to reclaim an aboriginal identity.

Persons with aboriginal status vote for aboriginal candidates instead of voting for candidates in a particular geographical single-member district. Because the aboriginal population is spread out, and much smaller relative to the Han population, it is feared their votes would be diluted in any one geographical district—hence the mechanism of “reserved seats” to ensure indigenous representation.

Under this system, Taiwan’s aborigines are indeed guaranteed decent representation in the country’s legislature. Though comprising only 2.34% of the total population (Taiwan’s population is about 23.5 million), the aboriginal communities’ six reserved seats form 5.31% of the legislature. With two additional aboriginal legislators likely to be elected in the separate PR party-list vote (see below), indigenous representation will potentially grow to 7.08% in the next session of the Legislative Yuan. Hopefully, this empowers aboriginal legislators to promote laws and policies supported by their community, such as statutes regarding autonomy.

Two other issues arise from this system: given the nationwide scope of the aboriginal seats, candidates are typically chosen from the more populous tribes. Smaller tribes are often not represented at all. Second, voting still takes place at local polling stations around the country, so in places with very few aboriginal residents, the secrecy of the vote may be compromised when the “aboriginal vote” for that station is tallied and reported.

3. Proportional Representation: choosing seats through party lists

In addition to voting for either a single-member district or aboriginal candidate, every voter receives a second legislative ballot featuring a list of political parties. This ballot, commonly referred to as the party ballot (政黨票), determines the number of seats awarded to political parties in a third pool of seats for legislators-at-large.

These 34 seats are assigned based on the nationwide proportion of votes the parties obtain, making it a “proportional representation” or PR system. Electoral districts do not matter here—only popular support across the country. The intent of PR is to make the legislature more representative, counteracting the “majoritarian” tendencies of the SMD seats. Though a voter may not feel represented by her local legislator because she voted for an opponent, that voter’s voice is “heard” at the national level when she casts a ballot for a political party she does support.

Many other countries also use PR methods to fill part, or all, of their legislatures, including Sweden, Germany, Israel and Uruguay, etc.

(A) Party Lists & Electoral Thresholds

Once seats have been proportionally allocated to the political parties, each party then fills them according to its party list. Each party determines its list of candidates internally, making this a closed-list PR system.

Candidates are listed in order of priority. For example, if a party wins enough votes to be awarded two PR seats, then the #1 and #2 candidates on the list would become legislators, while candidate #3 or anyone ranked below would not gain office.

With 34 PR seats, theoretically any party winning more than 2.94% of the national party votes would be entitled to one legislative seat (100% / 34 seats = 2.94% per seat). However, Taiwan only awards seats to parties that win at least 5% of votes. Smaller fringe groups cannot grab seats in parliament unless they truly command support from a substantial part of the populace.

As a consequence, voters who choose parties that do not pass the threshold are not represented in this pool of seats. If two smaller parties receive only 3% votes each, they would not meet the minimum threshold and would receive no PR seats. Meanwhile, the parties that do cross the threshold, accounting for 94% of total ballots cast, would split the 34 seats according to their share of these remaining votes.