A veteran legislator from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) announced yesterday that he would introduce a motion seeking to recall President Chen Shui-bian (
In a news release, KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (
Ting also urged supporters of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its pan-green ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), to exert pressure on party legislators to support the motion.
According to the nation's Constitution, a motion to recall the president would need the support of at least three-quarters, or 147, of all the legislative members.
Ting said the motion would be introduced to reflect the public's fury over a series of corruption and insider trading scandals implicating officials of the Presidential Office and members of the first family.
diverting attention
Ting said that the president's nomination on Friday of Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明), public prosecutor-general of the Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung branch, to the position of state public prosecutor-general, was intended to divert the nation's attention from all the scandals.
Chen Tsung-ming, who has served as the convener of a task force investigating the scandal involving the construction of the mass rapid transit railway project in Kaohsiung, has disappointed the nation because of the slow progress made on the case, Ting argued.
block promised
Opposition legislators have vowed that they will use their right of consent to block Chen's nomination.
The new nomination became necessary after the legislature rejected the president's first nominee, Hsieh Wen-ting (
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
strong pressure
However, under strong pressure from within the KMT and other sectors, the KMT chairman agreed to gauge public opinion through an opinion survey on whether President Chen should be recalled due to a series of corruption scandals involving his close aides and members of his extended family.
Ma said that he would recommend the poll's questionnaire include the question of whether both the president and Vice President Annette Lu (
Also see editorial:
Editorial: Why recall the president?
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