An election for the National Assembly took place in Taiwan on Saturday, 14 May 2005, from 07:30 to 16:00 local time. It elected an ad hoc National Assembly whose only function was to serve as a constituent assembly in order to approve or reject amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of China already proposed by the Legislative Yuan. The results indicated that the amendments would be approved, as the parties supporting them won an overwhelming majority, and indeed the amendments were passed on 7 June 2005. The election was carried out using purely the party-list proportional representation system. The official campaign period was 07:00 to 22:00 each day from 4 May 2005 to 13 May 2005. Official election broadcasts by the ad hoc coalitions (officially termed 'unions') and (established) parties were provided by the Public Television Service Taiwan on 7 May 2005; several unofficial debates were also arranged. Notably, this election saw the temporary breakdown of the traditional two-coalition system in Taiwanese politics: instead of dividing into the Pan-Green Coalition and Pan-Blue Coalition over the political status of Taiwan, the parties divided themselves into larger and smaller parties, with the larger Democratic Progressive Party and Kuomintang in support of the amendments and the smaller People First Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union against them. Background This election initially generated little interest, as it was largely a procedural formality to elect a new National Assembly whose sole purpose would be to deal with the amendments, which were passed almost unanimously by the Legislative Yuan in August 2004. However, the unexpected pan-blue coalition victory in the December 2004 legislative election considerably changed the electoral landscape. Originally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union supported the constitutional amendments on the belief that they would be a prelude to a more thorough move toward Taiwan independence. The Constitutional amendments were part of a package originally promoted by the Democratic Progressive Party, but were passed almost unanimously after compromises were made on the wording. However, after the December elections, which returned a pan-blue majority opposed to a rapid move toward independence, the TSU reconsidered its support, and has announced its opposition to the amendments. Similarly, the People First Party changed its position. Most analysts believe that PFP leader James Soong had initially planned to have a major role in a reformed KMT which would consist of a merger of the KMT and PFP. However, the PFP performed poorly