Lawmakers this morning cast their ballots in the first presidential impeachment vote in Taiwan’s constitutional history, failing to garner enough votes to further impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德).
The motion failed to reach the required two-thirds supermajority out of the total 113 seats, with 56 lawmakers voting in favor and 50 voting against.
Seven lawmakers failed to collect a ballot.
Photo: Bonnie White, Taipei Times
Three members are currently in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend events arranged by civil groups on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly.
The other four who did not cast ballots were Legislative Yuan Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Legislative Yuan Deputy Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) and independent Legislator Chen Chao-ming (陳超明).
Voting began at 10:07am and concluded at 11:05am, after legislative staff set up the polling booths for the open ballot vote.
Photo: Bonnie White, Taipei Times
The impeachment proceedings were initiated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), after Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) refused to countersign opposition-backed amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法).
Relying on their combined majority, KMT and TPP lawmakers passed a motion to initiate the impeachment process on Dec. 26 last year.
Following a series of public hearings, committee reviews and investigative hearings, the motion was put to a floor vote today — the eve of Lai’s two-year anniversary in office.
There are 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan. The KMT and aligned independent lawmakers Chen Chao-ming and May Chin (高金素梅) hold a combined 54 seats, while the TPP holds eight. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party holds 51 seats.
According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution (憲法增修條文), an impeachment motion against the president or vice president must be proposed by more than half of all lawmakers and approved by a two-thirds supermajority, or 76 votes.
If passed, the case is forwarded to the Constitutional Court.
The president would be formally impeached and dismissed from office only if the motion is subsequently deliberated by two-thirds of the Grand Justices, and approved by a majority.
Additional reporting by CNA
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