DPP chairman urges Ma to halt third recall motion

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun urged Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday to stop political wrangling and give Taiwan "a way out" in the run up to the third presidential recall motion scheduled for Friday at the Legislative Yuan.

Yu issued the call at a news conference at the DPP headquarters, accompanied by key party officials.

According to Yu, the KMT is in no position to launch a recall motion against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at a time when Ma, who also serves as Taipei mayor, is himself deeply mired in a scandal arising from the alleged mishandling of his special mayoral fund.

Ma was questioned by prosecutors a week ago over his special mayoral fund after a group of DPP lawmakers launched a lawsuit accusing him of corruption.

Yu told Ma to halt his political maneuvering and allow Taiwan a way out of its predicament.

Yu also attacked People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) for defending Ma, accusing the PFP head of seeking to trade private political gain with Ma in return for making pro-Ma comments.