DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must go ahead with an attempt to recall President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Despite its minority position in the legislature, the DPP must proceed with a proposal to recall Ma over his leadership in the year since he took office, Tsai said.
The call came just days after the DPP organized a rally and a 24-hour sit-in to protest what it calls Ma’s China-leaning policies.
Speaking to reporters while stumping for DPP candidates in the year-end local government election in Keelung, Tsai said that although the chance of success was low, the DPP had to show that the party and the public were “dissatisfied” with the Ma administration.
DPP convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) is scheduled to propose that Ma be recalled at today’s plenary session.
The DPP also plans to push a proposal to hold a national referendum on the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that the government plans to sign with Beijing.
While the pan-blue camp argues the trade pact would boost Taiwan’s competitiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world, the opposition party says the trade pact would harm Taiwan’s weaker traditional industries and belittle the nation’s sovereignty.
Article 70 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) states that any proposal to depose a president or vice president needs the support of two-thirds of sitting legislators.
Passage of the motion would initiate a national referendum on whether Ma should step down.
A president or vice president who has been in office for less than a year may not be recalled.
The DPP only occupies 27 out of 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan and would require the signatures of 29 other lawmakers to move the bill and 85 lawmakers to vote for the proposal for it to be successful.
“How do you know we can’t meet the threshold? Of course it will be difficult, but no matter what, we must give it a shot,” DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-chin (葉宜津) said.
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