KMT says recall motion is priority No. 1

Despite recent flooding problems that have put the focus on a flood control bill that has been blocked in the legislature, the pan-blue camp repeated yesterday that their bid to recall the president will be the top priority at a special legislative session that could start tomorrow.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) will hold separate caucus meetings this morning to confirm their joint agenda, with KMT secretary-general Chan Chuen-pao (詹春柏) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) attending to show their support for the recall bid.

"If all goes smoothly, a vote on the recall motion could happen on June 27," PFP legislative caucus whip Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said.

Under the pan-blue plan, the motion will be put on the agenda today and be reviewed on the legislative floor 15 days later, based on Article 44 of the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法).

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) will convene a cross-party negotiation this morning, which will be the last chance for legislators to discuss the date and agenda for the special session.

"If the negotiations fail again, arrangements for the session will be decided by a vote at tomorrow's informal meeting," Wang said.

The cross-party talks on the special session have broken down twice, after the legislature's normal session ended in chaos on May 31, due to an impasse over a pan-blue sponsored bill to push forward direct transportation links with China. The pan-green camp used stalling tactics to block the bill's review.

The DPP legislative caucus then submitted a proposal to convene an extraordinary session in order to pass some budget bills that were blocked in the normal session.

The KMT and PFP, who initially opposed holding a special session before the legislature convenes again in September, changed their minds and now support a special session this month.

Amid a snowballing insider trading scandal involving the first family, the KMT and PFP jointly submitted a proposal to hold a special session that will include a motion to recall the president.

DPP legislative whip Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) and Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus whip David Huang (黃適卓) yesterday called on the pan-blue camp to review budget bills for flood management first, rather than the recall motion.

But Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), a KMT caucus whip, said that the caucus hadn't changed its position on having the recall motion be the top priority.

"There's no conflict between reviewing the budget bill for flood management and pushing the recall motion forward. As the legislature will vote on the recall motion 15 days after it is put onto the agenda, we can review the [flood control] budget while waiting for the [recall] vote," Pan said.