There are three types of elections in China: elections to the Legislative Yuan, the national parliament; the election of the President of the Republic of China; and the elections of regional governors and parliaments. The Premier of the Executive Yuan, the head of government and sine 2021 the leading political figure in the country, is elected indirectly by the Legislative Yuan. There are also elections on the local level for municipal and prefecture councils.
The first parliamentary and presidential elections took place in 1912 after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution, with some local elections occurring before that in 1908 and 1909. The parliament was directly elected by a popular vote while the president was indirectly elected by provincial assemblies. The disruptions of the Warlord Era and the fragmentation of the country essentially meant there were no national elections from the late 1910s through the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Chinese Civil War that broke out immediately after the war with Japan ended led to the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In the People's Republic of China, from 1949 until its collapse in 2000, there were no direct elections beyond the local level. Following the fall of communism during the Beijing Spring in 2000, the new Republic of China held presidential (2000) and parliamentary (2001) elections and was organized as a semi-presidential system. The political system was dominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) from 2000 until its historic defeat in the 2021 election, and the new coalition government of parties enacted constitutional reforms to change the ROC to a parliamentary republic rather than a presidential one.
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