Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) Taiwan on Thursday swore in its 11th Legislative Yuan, a class of 113 members running the gamut from 10-term parliamentary mainstay Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) to Huang Jie (黃捷), the Legislature’s youngest member at 31.
The new Legislature, which will remain in office through 2028, has no single party holding an absolute majority.
The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) holds 52 seats, in addition to two KMT-aligned independents, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has 51. The minor Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), with eight seats, will therefore hold a crucial swing vote.
The incoming lawmakers consist of 54 new members and 59 returning incumbents. Forty-seven of them are women (42 percent) and 66 are men (58 percent).
The average age of members in the new Legislature is 53.
Of the total, seven members (6 percent) are aged 70 and above, 17 (15 percent) are aged 60-69, 58 (51 percent) are aged 50-59, and 20 members (18 percent) are between the ages of 40 and 49.
Only 11 lawmakers, or around 10 percent, are below the age of 40, the youngest of which is 31-year-old DPP lawmaker Huang Jie.
In terms of electoral performance, Tainan-based DPP Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) received the highest vote share of any lawmaker in the Jan. 13 election, winning 76.54 percent of the total ballots cast.
Meanwhile, the KMT’s Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) of New Taipei won the most overall votes in the election, with 158,586, while the KMT’s Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) of the outlying Lienchiang County (Matsu) was elected with the lowest number of votes — only 3,118.
Now in his 10th term, the DPP’s Ker remains the Legislature’s most senior lawmaker. He first entered parliament during the second Legislative Yuan in 1993.
Feb. 1: KMT’s Han Kuo-yu elected Legislative speaker, backed by 2 independents
Feb. 1: DPP’s You Si-kun quits as legislator after losing speakership
