The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) over the weekend launched a signature drive to recall President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), citing the nation’s deteriorating fiscal condition and struggling economy.
Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus whip Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) said the party aimed to collect more than 1 million signatures by May and then formally present the petition after Ma finishes the first year of his four-year second term on May 20.
The Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) stipulates that a president or vice president who has not yet served for one year may not be recalled.
Petition stations will be set up across the nation to collect signatures, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said, adding that after it has collected the signatures, the party would ask all district legislators whether they would obey “the people’s will [as shown through the signature drive] or Ma’s opinions?”
By doing this the party aims to sift out elected representatives who ignore the voice of the public and shield an incompetent government, Huang Kun-huei said. He added that the party would simultaneously gather all lawmakers’ performance records in the legislature and find out who had been siding with the government’s poor policies.
If needed, a survey could also be conducted to cross-reference the public’s opinion of lawmakers’ performances, he said.
The party would then move to launch a recall of poorly performing lawmakers as a precursor to recalling Ma, Huang Kun-huei said.
He said the balance of power in the legislature, where the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) currently holds a majority, would be changed if three to five KMT lawmakers lost their seats.
“With an approval rate of only 13 percent, Ma still fails to engage in introspection and review his ill-conceived policies,” Huang Kun-huei said. “Can Taiwan afford to have him sit in office for another four years, all the while seeing the nation making no progress?”
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