1947 Chinese National Assembly election

none gov October 2021 October 2021 China 1928 parliamentary 1918 Chinese National Assembly election 1918 1991 Taiwanese National Assembly election 1991 All 3,045 seats in the National Assembly 21–23 November 1947 ≈250,000,000 ≈4-8% 蔣中正總統玉照.png Chiang Kai-shek Kuomintang > 2,000 Zeng Qi.jpg Tseng Chi Chinese Youth Party 76 Hsu Fu-lin.jpg Hsu Fu-lin China Democratic Socialist Party 68 National Assembly elections were held between 21 and 23 November 1947 in China. They were the first elections under the newly ratified 1947 constitution. Under this constitution, the National Assembly was a constitutional convention and presidential electoral college. A total of 2,961 delegates were elected from across the country.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p548 0-19-924959-8 Background Following the establishment of Republic of China, indirect elections were held in 1912 and 1918 for the National Assembly, 1931 for the Nationals Assembly (國民會議) and 1936 for National Constituent Assembly. In December 1946, the Constituent Assembly adopted the new Constitution, effective from 25 December 1947. Delegates for National Assembly shall be elected before the constitution came into effect, which would be similar to Electoral College in the United States. In April 1947, China Democratic Socialist Party and Chinese Youth Party entered the re-organised Nationalist government. The two minority parties demanded to field 238 and 288 candidates in the election, despite significantly higher than their representations in the Constitutional Assembly. They also proposed the proportional representation in the election and was rejected.各省市参议会反对大选采取比例制有关文电，中国现代政治史资料汇编，第四辑第八册 John Leighton Stuart, Ambassador of the United States to China, criticised the minority of their greed for power.司徒雷登致国务卿马歇尔，1947-09-29，司徒雷登驻华报告，132页 He later recommended postponing the election as it could endanger peace negotiation of civil war, but Chiang insisted the election as the key step for constitutional governance.司徒雷登驻华报告，136页 +Elected government officials under the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of ChinaTitleRoleConstitutional provisionsAmended provisionsFirst electionNational Assembly delegateExercise political powers on behalf of citizensDirectly elected by citizens of county-level divisionsInstitution de facto suspended, with its powers transferred to the Legislative Yuan and referendums1947 Chinese National Assembly electionPresidentHead of stateIndirectly elected by the National AssemblyDirectly elected by the citizens within the Free area1948 Chinese presidential electionLegislative Yuan membersLegislatureDirectly elected by citizens of provincial-level divisionsDirectly elected by the citizens within the Free area1948 Chinese legislative electionControl Yuan membersMonitoring authorityIndirectly elected by provincial legislaturesParliamentary chamber de facto suspended. Appointed by the President and confirmed by the Legislative Yuan1947–1948 Chinese control election Overview, criticism, reactions link=:zh:File:Ballot ticket !947.jpg|right|thumb|250x250px|Ballot for election, with "Delegates of National Assembly election ballot" at the front and "Nominees" at the back国民大会实录，国民大会秘书处，1948The election was held between 21 and 23 November 1947 across China. Single non-transferable vote was used as the electoral system. With an empty ballot, voters were required to write down the name of the candidates voting for. Along with underdeveloped voter identification system, large number of invalid ballots were found and fraud was widely reported.行政院新闻局揭露关于协助南京办理国大代表普选投票中种种弊端的签呈，中国现代政治史资料汇编，第四辑第八册大公报，上海，1947-11-24佳木，民社党当前的心情，新闻天地，上海，第三十四期，1948-02-16 The election received mixed reaction within China,1947-11-25 国大选举完毕 zh-hant 上海大公报 with some praising the expansion of voting rights to women and farmers while denouncing the election as lacking other essential elements of democracy,Cheng P. Y. 2001 The Call of the Parliament of 1947–1948: Election under the Control of the KMT http://www.mh.sinica.edu.tw/MHDocument/PublicationDetail/PublicationDetail_645.pdf 中央研究院近代史研究所集刊 35 145–195 but still general appreciation internationally.1947-11-23 The First Election for Assembly Representative in China en 纽约时报 Ambassador Stuart commented that, despite the unsatisfactory conditions of the election, the election marked the start of democracy in China.中央日报，1947-11-24 第二版 Results Turnout thumb|Scouts outside a polling booth in Shanghai According to Central News Agency, the official broadcaster, and Ta Kung Pao, there were around 250 million of eligible voters, compared to a total population of 461 million.2020-10-29 近代中国宪政民主的轨迹 http://www.yhcqw.com/31/8832_2.html 2021-11-23 https://web.archive.org/web/20201029101834/http://www.yhcqw.com/31/8832_2.html 29 October 2020 Official newspaper Central Daily News, however, gave the number of voters at 350 million. The Government reported the turnout at 20 million,1947-11-24 Nanking Puts Chinese Vote At 20 Million 4 The Washington Post despite neutral observers doubted whether the total reached 10 million.1947-11-25 20 MILLION CHINESE VOTE AT ELECTIONS Twenty The Canberra Times Canberra https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2731100/689875 https://web.archive.org/web/20201027061311/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2731100/689875 2020-10-27 20 million Chinese men and women voted in China's first election, says the Associated Press correspondent. This represents one-tenth of those eligible to vote, but neutral observers doubt whether the total reached 10,000,000. 2020-10-24 With the government reported figures, the turnout was at 8%.thumb|Seats won by each party: #001AC2 Kuomintang: 2901 seats #CCDB42 Youth Party: 76 seats #2DA81B Democratic Socialist: 68 seats Elections could not be organised or could partly conducted in provinces or cities occupied or controlled by the Communist troops or Soviet forces, such as Dairen, Tsitsihar, Harbin, Lyushun, affecting around 800 to 900 constituencies as per government report.By HENRY R. LIEBERMANSpecial to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. New York Times (1857-Current file). Nov 21, 1947. p. 22 (1 page) Turnout in cities was higher than rural area, with more than half of voters casting ballots in Canton.民国广东大事记，羊城晚报出版社，页862 7-80651-206-3 Overseas voting were met with legal obstacles relating to nationality, especially in the United Kingdom and the colonies, but the electoral procedures in the United States were carried out quite successful as dual citizenships were permitted.1948-01-21，王世-{杰}-日记，中央研究院，1990 Seats breakdown In principle, the electoral districts were designed to elect one delegate for each county or equivalent of China. China recognized the result of the 1945 Mongolian independence referendum, hence this election was only held in the Mongolian leagues and banners within provinces of China, or roughly the territory of modern Inner Mongolia. The Tibetan electoral districts includes the Tibet Area as well as the Tibetan regions within provinces of China. Most of Tibet were controlled by the semi-independent Kashag government at this time. +Seats of the 1947 Chinese National AssemblyElectoral district typeSeatsDelegateselectednot electedCounties, cities, and equivalents2,1772,14136Inner Mongolia57570Tibet40391Minority ethnic groups in frontier area34340Overseas Chinese652243Occupational groupsRegional2162160Nationwide2712683Women groupsRegional1481471Nationwide20200Nationals in China proper with special convention17170Total3,0452,96184 Party breakdown The opposition parties urged Kuomintang to ensure the quota of elected delegates be reached prior to the election,国民党中央临常会讨论与民青两党互争国大代表名额问题的报告纪要，中国现代政治史资料汇编，第四辑第八册 reportedly at 230 and 202 for the Youth and Democratic Socialist respectively. Kuomintang is suggested to have won "in landslide", taking at least 80% of legislative seats, equivalent to more than 2,000 seats in National Assembly. Many Kuomintang-nominated candidates, however, still lost in the election, while party members nominated by voters won. Kuomintang later passed a controversial and unconstitutional resolution, forcing those elected delegates with KMT affiliation to give up their seats such as to fulfill the demand from the opposition, as they threatened to withdraw from the National Assembly in protest.中国现代政治史资料汇编，第四辑第八册 The chaos following the resolution forced the meeting to postpone from 25 December 1947 to 29 March 1948, and only ended as it was declared seats would not needed to be given up. Due to the lack of data over the political affiliation of elected delegates, the numbers below were estimations from the given details. +Political partyStandingElectedKuomintang1,758More than 2,000Chinese Youth Party28876China Democratic Socialist Party23868Independents??Total?2,961 Results in Taiwan The islands of Taiwan and Penghu were under Japanese rule before 15 August 1945. Before World War II, few Taiwanese people were selected by the Government of Japan to participate the Imperial Diet. As a result of World War II, the Republic of China restored sovereignty over Taiwan on behalf of the Allies. The government established Taiwan Province to mark the Retrocession of Taiwan. The administrative divisions of Taiwan consist of 8 counties and 9 cities. However, an additional delegate seat were added to Taichung County and Tainan County respectively due to their population. There were 19 delegates elected in this election. PartyVotes%SeatsValid votes1,925,73998.2919Invalid/blank votes33,4151.70–Total1,959,15410019Source: Nohlen et al. Aftermath National Assembly (Republic of China) left|thumb|Statistical table on number of National Assembly delegates reporting attendance The election was organized by the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government. Elected National Assembly delegates started its first session on 29 March 1948 in Nanking. The exact number of delegates attending the meeting remained unknown due to numerous circumstances, such as deaths before or after election, declined to inaugurate, resigned after the first meeting, or disqualified for law offenses. Records showed 2,859, among 2,961 elected, reported the attendance in the opening of the National Assembly first meeting. The number of attendees increased to 2,878 when the meeting reached the end on 1 May 1948. The inauguration of the first National Assembly marks the transition of China into constitutional governance. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalist government, was elected by the National Assembly delegates in the later presidential election to be the first President of the Republic of China in the constitutional government. However, the Kuomintang-led Government of the Republic of China lost the Chinese Civil War in the next year of 1949. This resulted the government to retreat to Taiwan. Around half of the National Assembly delegates came to Taiwan with the government. Since the government had lost control over mainland China, the delegates extended their own terms until "re-election is possible in their original electoral district." This situation remained until a Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan) decision in June 1991 that orders the terms to terminate by the end of 1991. The National Assembly delegates elected actually served in office from 29 March 1948 to 31 December 1991, which equals 43 years and 278 days. Related elections Previous and next legislative elections There were some regime changes happened in China during the first half of the 20th century. Depends on the definition, possible previous and next elections for legislatures with similar functions are listed below. OrderElectionPolitical entityNotePrevious1918 Chinese National Assembly electionChina 1912 Republic of China (1912–1949)Elected the 2nd National Assembly under the Beiyang governmentNext1st National People's CongressChina 1949 People's Republic of ChinaElected the 1st National People's Congress1969 Taiwanese legislative electionTaiwan 1945 Republic of China (on Taiwan)Elected supplementary delegates served together with the 1st National Assembly1991 Taiwanese National Assembly electionTaiwan 1945 Republic of China (on Taiwan)Elected new delegates to form the 2nd National Assembly Presidential elections in National Assembly The government of the Republic of China claims the sovereignty over the whole China. However, due to the inability to hold re-elections in mainland China after 1949, the National Assembly delegates elected in 1947 still held elections in Taiwan to elect the President and Vice President every 6 years in accordance with the constitution. This situation remained until the democratization took place in Taiwan in the 1990s under the Lee Teng-hui administration. +Presidential elections by the National Assembly delegates elected in 1947OrderPresidential ElectionVoting delegatesPresidentVice President1st1948 Chinese presidential election1947Chiang Kai-shekLi Tsung-jen2nd1954 Taiwanese presidential election1947Chiang Kai-shekChen Cheng3rd1960 Taiwanese presidential election1947Chiang Kai-shekChen Cheng4th1966 Taiwanese presidential election1947Chiang Kai-shekYen Chia-kan5th1972 Taiwanese presidential election1947, 1969Chiang Kai-shekYen Chia-kan6th1978 Taiwanese presidential election1947, 1969, 1972Chiang Ching-kuoHsieh Tung-min7th1984 Taiwanese presidential election1947, 1969, 1980Chiang Ching-kuoLee Teng-hui8th1990 Taiwanese presidential election1947, 1969, 1986Lee Teng-huiLee Yuan-tsu Gallery See also Nationalist government Constitution of the Republic of China Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion National Assembly (Republic of China) 1948 Chinese legislative election References National China Category:Legislative elections in the Republic of China (1912–1949) Category:Taiwanese National Assembly elections China