The official name of the government of Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC). The government has been constituted in its current form since the 1947 constitution, although numerous amendments have been made. The system of government is a unitary, semi-presidential and constitutional republic where the president is the chief of state and the premier is the government’s head. The central base of government is in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The government of the Republic of China has prerogative over 22 islands found under the Taiwan group and 64 more islands in the Pescadores archipelago on the western side.

Elections in Taiwan are held after every four years both at the national and local level to elect members of the executive and legislative branches of government. Eligible voters should be 20 years and above and must have lived in Taiwan for no shorter than four months. The autonomous body within the central government that is responsible for election supervision is the Central Election Commission.

The parliament of Taiwan is known as the Legislative Yuan and it exercises power on behalf of the people. It consists of 113 members. 73 of these members are voted into office through the first-past-the-post approach with one member per constituency, 34 are elected through the supplementary representative system on a second ballot established on countrywide votes, while native voters vote the remaining six through one non-transferable vote in two constituencies with three representatives each. The office of the president of Taiwan is housed in the presidential office building located in Zhongzheng District in Taipei. The building was designed during the Japanese rule in the country between 1895 and 1945. The building initially was the office of Governor-General of Taiwan but was damaged extensively during WWII. It was restored later and housed the office of the president in 1950 when the ROC lost control of mainland China and relocated to Taipei. Currently, the building which has a Baroque style and is a symbol of Taiwan government and a prominent historical landmark in Taipei.

Taiwan operates under a multi-party democracy. The dominant political parties in the country are the Kuomintang (KMT) which is the largest party with about 1.05 million members and the Democratic Progressive Party which was founded on September 28, 1986, and consists of approximately 420,000 supporters.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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