Taiwan_Election

Taiwan Laws Governing Presidential Elections The president and vice president shall be directly elected by ROC citizens through universal suffrage and secret ballot. Eligible voters are citizens who have reached the age of 20; who have not been legally stripped of their right to vote or declared incompetent; and who have resided continuously in the ROC for at least six months, or have previously resided in the ROC for at least six consecutive months, hold a valid ROC passport, and have registered within the stipulated time period with the household registration office of their last place of residence in the ROC. Eligible voters shall cast ballots at polling stations in the area of their household registration. The electoral register shall be compiled by the household registration authorities of the townships, municipalities, and districts, based on household registration records. Presidential and vice presidential candidates must be citizens who are eligible to vote, have reached the age of 40, have resided continuously in the ROC for at least six months, and have been registered with household registration authorities for at least 15 years. Naturalized ROC citizens and persons whose ROC citizenship has been lost and later reinstated are not eligible to stand for these offices. Other categories of persons ineligible to be a candidate for president or vice president include those who have committed certain types of crime or have been legally stripped of certain civil rights. Presidential and vice presidential candidates shall register jointly and be listed as a ticket on the ballot. Such a ticket may be jointly nominated by political parties whose candidates received a combined total of at least 5 percent of total valid votes in the most recent presidential or legislative election. Presidential and vice presidential candidates may also register as a pair without party recommendation by collecting petition signatures amounting to at least 1.5 percent of the total number of eligible voters in the most recent legislative election. The Central Election Commission (CEC) is obligated to sponsor and arrange up to four televised debates between the candidates. Additionally, the CEC may subsidize up to four televised debates arranged by private parties. Following the election, the CEC shall partially reimburse the election committee treasuries of the winning candidates as well as those of losing candidates who garnered over one-third of the total number of ballots cast for the winning ticket, in accordance with a per-ballot amount specified by law. The pair of candidates receiving the highest number of votes shall be certified as the electees. In the case of a tie, another election shall be held within 30 days. If only one pair of candidates stands for election, it must receive ballots from at least 20 percent of eligible voters to be elected. If this requirement is not met, another election shall be held within three months.