Taiwan's leading opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) on Monday
initiated their third effort to pass a motion designed to oust
Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian from power.
The "Legislative Yuan," the Taiwan legislature, is expected to
hold a vote in response to the motion on November 24.
The People First Party (PFP), another major opposition group,
has expressed its support for the motion. The KMT and the PFP urged
the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and legislators from the ruling
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to back the motion.
The TSU, a political party with 12 legislators, announced last
Friday it would support the third recall motion when prosecutors
indicted Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, on charges of graft and forgery
of documents in a case involving 14.8 million New Taiwan dollars
(US$448,500).
However, on Monday the party began to waver, saying they
couldn't make decisions before they gauged public opinion.
In the last vote 116 legislators voted in favor of the motion.
This is well short of the required approval of two-thirds of
Taiwan's 220 legislators - 147 votes. For the motion to succeed the
opposition requires support from DPP members.
Chen has already survived two leadership challenges, in June and
October of this year, as the legislators from the ruling DPP have
boycotted the vote on both occasions.
(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2006)
