Ruling and opposition parties campaign ahead of Taiwan recall vote

Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's ruling and opposition parties stepped up their final campaign efforts on Saturday in the countdown to next week's recall election that targets seven Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers.

In central Nantou County, Ho Po-wen (何博文), acting secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), led party officials in a street canvassing effort to garner support for the recall of KMT lawmaker Yu Hao (游顥) in the Aug. 23 vote.

"Taiwan does not need Yu Hao [in the Legislature], but rather needs lawmakers who are loyal to the country," Ho said.

He urged supporters to reject Yu, who represents Nantou, and other KMT legislators on the ballot who had "pushed through" several controversial bills over the past year.

Yu is one of seven directly elected KMT lawmakers facing recall votes in the coming week, including Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啓臣), eight-term lawmaker Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), and Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), who is serving her fifth term in the national legislative body.

Next Saturday's election will be the final leg of an unprecedented recall campaign launched by informal civic groups and supported by the DPP, which has sought to unseat most of the KMT lawmakers.

In the previous round held on July 26, all 24 KMT lawmakers on the ballot retained their seats.

Amid waning momentum in the current campaign, the DPP and the recall groups in recent weeks have changed their strategy, shifting to more personalized efforts, including door-to-door visits and street-corner speeches rather than large-scale rallies.

On Saturday, in addition to Ho's visit to central Taiwan, six similar events were held simultaneously in Taichung, New Taipei and Hsinchu County, with DPP lawmakers and officials urging supporters to back the recall of local KMT legislators.

Meanwhile, the KMT held rallies in Nantou and Hsinchu on Saturday evening, seeking support for its lawmakers facing recall votes.

"The world has never seen a ruling party orchestrate a massive recall campaign against the opposition since the advent of democracy," KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said at the Hsinchu rally.

He urged supporters to "step up and defend democracy" by voting against the recall of the county's KMT lawmaker Lin Szu-ming (林思銘).

Chu also urged support for a pro-nuclear national referendum, scheduled to be held concurrently on Aug. 23, arguing that Taiwan would not have sufficient clean energy without nuclear power.

The plebiscite was proposed by the Taiwan People's Party (TPP) in an attempt to restart the decommissioned Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant (No. 3) in Pingtung.

The DPP, meanwhile, has urged its supporters to vote against the proposal.

The vague wording of the referendum question means the result would carry little binding force, according to experts.