In Taiwan three by elections to the Legislative Yuan were held on 9 January. Taiwan Today reports that two of three by elections “were due to the annulment of victories by KMT candidates in the January 2008 Legislative Yuan election for vote buying”. The third was caused by the December 2009 local elections.

All three seats had been held by the ruling KMT party. However, this time the opposition Democratic Progressive Party won all three contests. These setbacks for the KMT follow on from the poor results of the recent local elections.

The KMT now has 71 seats in the Legislative Yuan, the DPP has 33 seats, two other parties have 4 seats and there are 5 independents.