Campaign groups set minimum goal of recalling 12 KMT lawmakers

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Members of recall groups on Thursday urged voters to back their campaign, saying that recalling 12 Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers was the minimum goal needed for the Legislative Yuan to "return to normalcy."

The Taiwan Inspiration Association (TIA), together with representatives of various recall groups and several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, held a news conference on the mass recall campaign in Taipei.

Stephen Tan (譚耀南), managing director of the International Policy Advisory Group, said the mass recall campaign was a political movement driven by civil society, not a showdown between political parties or a battle between the KMT and DPP.

Tan, who hosted the event, added that the campaign is also not a vote of confidence in the DPP, but rather an effort to empower voters to decide whether their legislators and mayor are still fit to serve.

Chen Hsiao-wei (陳曉煒), a pastor who initiated the recall campaign against KMT lawmaker Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭), said that whether "Taiwan can enjoy peace and tranquility" will be decided by its people on July 26.

Should at least 12 lawmakers are recalled, the legislature can immediately return to "normalcy" on Aug. 1, Chen said, calling on the public to head to the ballot box that day.

During the event, both Tan and Chen cited examples of what they said was chaos across Taiwan's political scene, including the "unreasonable slashing" of the central government's budget for 2025 by the main opposition KMT, with the latter and the smaller Taiwan People's Party currently holding a combined majority.

Lin Chih-chieh (林志潔), the spokesperson for a campaign group calling for the recall of KMT lawmaker Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐) and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), said the recall movement is a new democratic experiment initiated by citizens and supported by the DPP.

Echoing Tan and Chen, Lin called on the public to step forward and vote in favor of the recall.

If 12 or more KMT lawmakers are recalled, the DPP's 51-member caucus will have an absolute majority in the temporarily reduced 101-seat Legislative Yuan until by-elections to replace the unseated members are held.