I realised that I forgot to post the results of the recent parliamentary elections in Taiwan.

The election was held on 12 January. The incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost heavily to the Kuomintang (KMT).

This election was the first to be held under the reformed electoral system, which is a mixture of about one-third proportional representation with a 5% threshold and two-thirds single-member plurality seats. It was also the first under the reformed legislature, which, notably, reduced the number of seats from 225 to 113. These changes make it quite difficult to compare the 2008 results with the previous election result.

In the proportional contest, which is the best indicator of relative party popularity, the KMT won 51.2% and the DPP won 36.9%. The New Party won 4%, and the Taiwan Solidarity Union won 3.5%.

In terms of seats, combining the proportional and single-member results, the KMT ended with 71 seats, while the DPP won 27 seats.

The situation is now very interesting as the DPP still holds the presidency. The presidential election will be held on 22 March. The KMT’s candidate, Ma Ying-jeou, looks set to win and is polling at about 50%. This would mean that cohabitation would be avoided. However, there is some evidence that support for the DPP’s candidate, Frank Hsieh, may be improving slightly, but he would need the support of most of the large percentage of currently undecided voters to stand a chance of winning.