The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said it will launch an "anti-corruption" referendum authorizing the legislature to investigate officials suspected of corruption.
In a press release, the KMT said people had shown their anger at scandal-tainted President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) over the past week by means of a mass sit-in in front of the Presidential Office and yet, instead of listening to the people's voice, the ruling party has decided to organize a mass rally to show their support for the president.
"We therefore decided to launch a national referendum through which the people can decide how to hold corrupt officials accountable," it said.
It said that since Chen took power in 2000 a series of corruption scandals had severely damaged Taiwan's international image.
At the same time, it added, poor economic growth and rising unemployment have decreased people's real incomes and widened the gap between rich and poor. This has resulted in a national tragedy in which "only one family has benefited from corruption while the rest of the country suffers."
It said it would propose the following question for the people in the referendum: "Do you agree to enacting a law to investigate the president and his key staff regarding their policy errors that have caused great losses to the nation, and authorizing the legislature to form an investigative committee with which all government departments must cooperate in order to maintain public interest and punish responsible officials and demand they return illicit gains to the state?"
The party said it had ordered all local branches to begin collecting signatures to be presented to the Central Election Commission within one week.
According to the law, some 83,000 signatures are needed to propose a national referendum, while a referendum vote will require 825,000 co-sponsors, or 5 percent of all eligible voters, a number that should be reached within six months of the proposal being raised.
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