The Central
Election Commission held a committee meeting on February 1, 2018 to discuss the
10th legislator apportionment and redistricting. After a lively discussion,
the committee decided to use the same apportionment method used in the 7th
legislator election (one seat reserved plus the Hamilton calculation formula).
The results are: based on the population census at the end of November 2017 (in
accordance with the above calculation method), the seats for Tainan City and
Hsinchu County will both increase by 1, while the seats for Kaohsiung City and
Pingtung County will both be reduced by 1. For the remaining municipalities, counties
(cities), no changes will be made.
According to Article
37 of the Public Officers Election And Recall Act, proposals for legislator apportionment
and redistricting should be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for approval before
May 31, 2018.
Legislator
apportionment and redistricting is based upon the principle of Congressional
Reservation. In countries operating under the same reservation principles such
as Australia, Germany, the United States, Japan, etc., formulas of
apportionment are stipulated by constitution or law. As apportionment not only
involve citizens’ rights to elect and to be elected, but can also affect their
equal participation in politics, the CEC suggests that the apportionment
formula in Taiwan be mandated in the Public Officers Election and Recall Act as
well.