At stake in this election:

• The office of President of Taiwan

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President CHEN Shui-bian
• Head of Government: Premier (President of the Executie Yuan_ YU Shyi-kun
• Assembly: Taiwan has a unicameral Legislative Yuan with 225 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by popular vote to serve a 4-year term.
• In the Legislative Yuan, 176 members are elected by popular vote to serve 3-year terms and 49 members are selected .***

*** The remaining 49 members (8 ROC citizens who reside abroad and 41 in-country nationals) are selected by the political parties according to the proportion of nationwide votes received by each.

Main Candidates in the Presidential race:

• CHEN Shui-bian
  • Party: (DPP)
• LIEN Chan
  • Party: Kuomintang (KMT)

Last Presidential election:

• The last presidential election was held on March 18, 2000 with CHEN Shui-bian securing the presidency with 39.3% of the votes, while the independent James SOONG won 36.84% of the votes, LIEN Chan from the KMT with 23.1% of the votes, independent candidate

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 22,605,000 (December 2003 est.)
• Registered Voters: 16,507,179 ( 2004 )