The People First Party's (PFP) legislative caucus yesterday submitted a motion to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the legislature after collecting 56 signatures, more than the threshold required to propose the motion.
A presidential recall vote against Chen in June failed to achieve the two-thirds majority in the legislature required to pass because the pan-green camp opposed it.
"This time, we added an annotation onto the recall motion: The motion is for the public to decide whether the president should stay on or leave office through a referendum," PFP spokesman Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said.
"We want to make it clear that approving the recall motion doesn't mean that you oppose the president. It means letting the people make the decision," Lee said.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) appealed in a letter sent to lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union for support for the second recall. The letter stated the same rationale as the PFP -- letting the public decide.
"Holding a referendum on deposing the president or not is a legal measure stipulated in the Constitution. Also, Chen had said before that he would like to let the 23 million Taiwanese people decide whether he should go or stay," Ma wrote.
"If the recall motion passes in the referendum, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) will take over the presidency. If it fails, the KMT will stop pushing for a recall. No matter what the result is, the DPP will be the ruling party until 2008," he wrote.
DPP legislators, however, said that Ma was not fit to ask Chen to step down because Ma himself was corrupt.
DPP Legislator Hsieh Hsin-ni (謝欣霓) asked Ma to return all the money he had "embezzled" from his special allowance fund within three days, or she would "open Pandora's box" and disclose one corruption scandal involving Ma every day.
She has accused Ma of embezzling NT$79,700 from the mayor's special expenditure fund to pay for a physical exam and fees related to adopting his dog, Ma Hsiao-jeou (
The DPP caucus said that while it did not support the second recall motion, it would respect the KMT caucus' right to file such a request if it decided to do so.
"While most people want to live a peaceful and stable life, this kind of move would only cause political instability," DPP caucus whip Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) said.
The KMT chief ran a half-page advertisement in Chinese-language newspapers yesterday, calling for the pan-blue alliance to support the second recall motion.
"Whether you support Chen or oppose Chen, please support the recall proposal and let the people of Taiwan have the final say on whether Chen should leave office or stay," the ad said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) yesterday said that it would make more sense for Ma to call for public support for a referendum on constitutional reform rather than on the president if he really aspired to be the next president.
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