Taipei, April 22 (CNA) The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party on Tuesday slammed mass recall campaigns targeting opposition lawmakers as “a disgrace to democracy.”
Eric Chu (朱立倫), chairman of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), and Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), leader of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), met Tuesday at an “opposition leaders summit” titled “Bring Democracy Back to Taiwan,” to discuss the economic challenges posed by tariffs announced by United States President Donald Trump and the “democratic crisis” Taiwan is witnessing.
Chu said that as democracies around the world are focused on the tariffs and a looming U.S. national debt crisis, Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is concerned with “politicking” by launching mass recall campaigns.
“This is really a disgrace to Taiwan’s democracy,” Chu said, accusing President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) of running a “dictatorial” administration and “destroying democracy.”
Rather than engaging in rational dialogue and seeking opportunities to collaborate with opposition parties that have a combined legislative majority, Lai wants to “overturn” the result of the January 2024 legislative election by mounting mass recall campaigns against opposition lawmakers, Chu said, challenging Lai to name one democratic country that has ever employed such a tactic.
Taiwan is witnessing an unprecedented political showdown as recall motions seek to remove the largest political party from the national legislature after winning most seats in a national election held only 15 months ago.
As of March 10, recall campaigns have been mounted against 34 of the KMT’s 39 lawmakers eligible to be recalled under Taiwan’s Public Officials Election and Recall Act. In a tit-for-tat move, KMT supporters have launched recall campaigns targeting 15 DPP lawmakers.
The motions are in the second-stage signature collection process and must meet the legal threshold of 10 percent of all eligible voters in a constituency for a recall vote to be held.
In response, DPP Spokesperson Justin Wu (吳崢) said the recall campaigns were launched by civic groups, not by the DPP.
Wu rebutted Chu’s remark that mass protest motions are “dictatorial,” saying that it is a constitutional right of citizens.
“How could exercising one’s constitutional rights be dictatorial or undemocratic?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Huang accused Lai of “looking inward to target enemies despite facing a sea change.”
In August last year, former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was taken away by “Lai-controlled prosecutors,” Huang said.
Since then, the DPP has collaborated with prosecutors and certain media outlets to “destroy” the TPP, Huang said.
Ko was detained on Sept. 5, 2024 for suspected corruption during his second term as Taipei mayor. That occurred after it was found that Taipei City government had allowed Core Pacific Group, which owned the now-demolished Core Pacific City shopping mall, to redevelop the site at a vastly inflated floor area ratio.
On Dec. 26, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Ko on charges of bribery, illegal benefiting of others, and breach of trust over the redevelopment case and alleged cash flow-related offenses while campaigning for the 2024 presidential election.
Ko was briefly released on bail in January but was quickly detained again after prosecutors appealed the Taipei District Court’s decisions to grant him bail.
Chu, echoing Huang’s remarks, noted that Ko has been detained for eight months.
“If there’s evidence, present it. Don’t try to coerce someone to plead guilty by detaining him,” Chu said.
In response, Wu said accusations that Lai had personally interfered with the judicial process were nothing more than groundless “mudslinging.”
