KMT's Ting to push recall motion

A veteran legislator from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) announced yesterday that he would introduce a motion seeking to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the Legislative Yuan tomorrow.

In a news release, KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said the motion that he instigated had already gained the endorsement of 103 legislators, surpassing the legal threshold of one-fourth, or 55, of Legislative Yuan members.

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 (謝文定), Taiwan High Court prosecutor-general, in a vote on April 11 on grounds that he did not demonstrate the will to fully investigate various scandals.

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who also serves as Taipei mayor, had indicated earlier on Friday that he and the KMT's legislative caucus were opposed to the proposal to recall the president.

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 (呂秀蓮) should be recalled, although he believed it would be wholly inappropriate to recall the vice president as she has nothing to do with the scandals.

Also see editorial:
Editorial: Why recall the president?