The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has vowed to recall President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, but it is still contemplating the best way to do it.
The DPP declared an all-out war with the KMT on Sunday when Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told about 100,000 protesters in Taipei that the party would launch a bid to recall Ma and the KMT lawmakers.
Unlike recalling the president, which given its high threshold would be more difficult, albeit less debatable, recalling lawmakers is more likely to succeed, but has raised discussions about strategies within the DPP.
Speaking yesterday on the sidelines of the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting in Wurih District (烏日), Greater Taichung, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said there would be two options for the bid to recall KMT lawmakers.
“We could try to recall all the KMT lawmakers or some of them,” Hsieh said.
Tying to recall all the entire caucus would likely cause a counterattack from the pan-blue camp, which could also attempt to recall DPP lawmakers, he said.
“If that happened, that could be a good thing because it would create a de facto, brand new legislative election,” Hsieh said.
Hsieh declined to make a recommendation, saying that the decision should be made by the chairman.
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun said the DPP has to focus its energy and resources on specific constituencies to bring down the KMT lawmakers who spoke or acted against reform.
“Recalling a legislator will not be an easy task because the lawmaker could reward voters with benefits, including cash or prizes, by asking them not to vote,” Yu said, adding that he was not too worried about a pan-blue counterattack.
As for Ma, Yu said the DPP should still make an effort to recall him, even though the attempt will certainly fail.
Su has not publicly explained how the DPP plans to recall either KMT lawmakers or Ma.
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