Chen recall moves one step forward

A motion to recall the president was put on the legislative agenda for the first time in the nation's history yesterday, raising the stakes in a political showdown triggered by corruption allegations against President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) relatives and inner circle.

The motion, sponsored by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party, was put on the agenda of a special legislative session that begins today and runs through the end of the month.

The motion had majority backing from pan-blue and some independent legislators yesterday. However, in order for the president to be recalled, the motion will need to win the support of two-thirds of the legislature and a majority of eligible voters in a nationwide referendum -- a threshold that most analysts believe will be too high to meet.

Chen has come under fire over a spate of alleged wrongdoing involving the first family, his in-laws and his aides, which have drawn calls from the pan-blue camp for his ouster.

The pan-blue controlled procedure committee yesterday decided that the entire legislature would review the recall motion beginning on June 21, and vote on it on June 27.

The pan-greens are planning to employ stalling tactics to block a review of the recall motion, an approach they took three times last month to successfully stymie the review of a pan-blue camp sponsored bill to establish direct cross-strait links.

In accordance with Article 44 of the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法), the president can choose to respond to a recall proposal seven days before it is reviewed -- which in this case will be June 20 -- and submit his response to the legislature. As of last night, the presidential office hadn't decided whether Chen would give a response or not.

Chanting "recalling the president to protect Taiwan," pan-blue legislators yesterday celebrated after putting the recall motion on the agenda, in addition to two flood control bills and 11 others. The pan-blues' agenda passed by a vote of 113 to 97.

The pan-blues rejected any review of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union's priority bills during the special session. As a result, the NT$6.2 billion US arms procurement bill, a proposal to unfreeze NT$75 billion of the government's budget for this year and other pan-green sponsored bills will not be up for review until the next regular legislative session, which begins on Sept. 19.

"Although the budget bills for flood control plans were put onto the agenda, they were just the pan-blues' excuse for convening the special session. Their real focus for the session is the recall proposal," DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.

Pan-blue legislators, however, denied the accusation, with KMT Policy Committee Director Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) saying that the flood control bills will be passed.

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