During the four-day Tomb Sweeping Festival holiday, many recall campaigns set up temporary stalls in their electoral districts to encourage more eligible voters to sign second-phase recall petitions.
As of Wednesday, a total of 47 recall efforts — targeting 35 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and 12 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers — had advanced to the second phase, which requires signatures from at least 10 percent of eligible voters in the constituency within 60 days to proceed to a final vote.
Nearly all recall petitions against KMT legislators cleared the first-phase review and launched their second phase between March 8 and March 15. By contrast, recall efforts against DPP lawmakers initially failed the first-phase review due to a high number of invalid signatures. However, they later passed after resubmitting with sufficient valid signatures.
The initial setbacks to the KMT’s “retaliatory” recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers dealt a blow to the party’s momentum, while civic-led recall drives targeting KMT legislators have gained more traction entering the second phase.
However, as the second-phase recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers have been under way for nearly a month, some efforts are entering a “stagnation period,” with the pace of signature collection slowing. With several days near the end of the 60-day window reserved for verifying petition signatures, campaigners are sounding an “urgent alert,” urging hesitant voters to sign the petitions.
The recall movements targeting KMT lawmakers were largely driven by public outrage at controversial “legislative reform” proposals pushed by KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators that sought to significantly expand the legislature’s powers, as well as amendments weakening the authority of the Constitutional Court.
Adding to the discontent, KMT and TPP lawmakers in December last year passed amendments reallocating a larger portion of central government revenue to local governments and raising the threshold for future recall motions, moves widely seen as attempts to obstruct the executive branch and restrict democracy.
Public frustration reached a tipping point when KMT legislators in January rushed approval of sweeping budget freezes and cuts through questionable procedures and without proper deliberation.
On March 25, after discussions on the KMT’s proposed referendums stalled, Cabinet officials and DPP lawmakers left the legislative chamber at 6pm, the scheduled end of the session. However, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT abruptly reconvened the session at 7:20pm, and in the DPP’s absence, KMT and TPP lawmakers pushed the proposals directly to a second reading via a unanimous vote — bypassing normal procedures and further fueling public distrust.
KMT and TPP lawmakers have repeatedly bypassed proper legislative procedures by opting for hand-raising votes instead of recorded roll calls. In a particularly troubling instance during a meeting of the Education and Culture Committee on Monday last week, not only did they pass a bill by a show of hands, but they also voted to omit their names from the official meeting minutes — seemingly to avoid accountability for their decisions.
Even as they face recall efforts, the KMT and TPP have shown little willingness to alter their behavior or respond humbly to public concerns. If the recall petitions against them fail, it is not difficult to imagine them becoming more emboldened.
Neutral voters or those who remain politically indifferent should be reminded to look closely and consider whether lawmakers who make decisions behind closed doors and avoid public scrutiny are truly fit to represent them and the public interest for three more years.
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