The Legislative Yuan can today be called Taiwan’s parliament, but it did not always play that role all by itself. Early on, parliamentary responsibilities were split between the Legislative Yuan and the National Assembly. The two bodies were defined in the constitution of the Republic of China (ROC). That’s the official name of Taiwan’s government.
The Legislative Yuan was defined as a body to make and amend laws and to review the central government’s budget. But it could not make major changes related to national sovereignty. Only the National Assembly could elect or remove the president, redefine national borders, and make amendments to the Constitution.
The first group of legislators was elected in 1947, and the first representatives to the National Assembly were elected in 1948. But the democratic process was interrupted in 1949, when the ROC government relocated to Taipei from Mainland China amid a civil war with communist forces.
In 1951, the first term legislators were set to step down and new elections were supposed to take place. But the problem was that both the National Assembly and Legislative Yuan were supposed to represent all of the different voting districts of China. Because the communists had already solidified their grip on Mainland China, a national election was obviously impossible. The ROC’s Council of Grand Justices ruled that the first term lawmakers must continue to serve until ROC forces could take back the mainland. To date, that still has not happened.
As a result, the same set of lawmakers held on to their positions for 40 years – replacements were selected only when a serving lawmaker moved to a different government position, retired, or died. Democracy activists later called this the “eternal parliament”, or wan nian guo hui, because the first term lasted so long. New elections were eventually held in 1992.
By 2000, the role of the National Assembly was only to review certain laws passed by the legislature. In 2005, the assembly was effectively abolished and its duties and powers were given to the Legislative Yuan.
Today, the Legislative Yuan is a unicameral body with 113 members. Of those, six lawmakers are elected by votes from Taiwan’s aboriginal population.
Starting in 2012, elections for the legislature and the president are held at the same time. In the most recent election, the Kuomintang took the legislative majority with 65 seats, and the Democratic Progressive Party took 40 seats. The remaining nine seats are occupied by lawmakers from various smaller parties.