Impeachment vote targeting President Lai fails (update)

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) An impeachment motion initiated by opposition parties and directed at President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) failed to meet the constitutional threshold in the Legislature on Tuesday.

Lawmakers voted 56-50 in favor of impeachment, but the 56 votes were far short of the 76 needed for the motion to succeed.

The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP) sponsored the impeachment motion in December 2025 after Lai did not promulgate a bill passed by lawmakers that would have increased the share of tax revenue given to local governments.

• EXPLAINER / The Legislature's motion to impeach President Lai Ching-te

Tuesday's outcome was a foregone conclusion, as the motion needed to gain the backing of at least two-thirds of all lawmakers before being able to proceed to another vote by the Constitutional Court's grand justices.

The KMT, TPP, and two independents ideologically aligned with the KMT combine for only 62, or about 55 percent, of the 113 legislative seats.

The impeachment vote targeting the president was the first of its kind in Taiwan's history.

Before the vote began, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) criticized Lai as being "incompetent" on diplomatic affairs and "overbearing" on internal ones.

"The president has disrupted the constitutional system and order. We must let his name go down in history," Lin said.

TPP caucus whip Chen Ching-lung (陳清龍) said his caucus would unanimously support the impeachment motion, as Lai failed to uphold any of the "four pillars of peace" he proposed in his inauguration speech in 2024.

The four pillars are strengthened national defense, improved economic security, stable and principled cross-strait leadership, and values-based diplomacy.

Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), the caucus whip of Lai's party, the Democratic Progressive Party, saw the motion as a waste of time.

"What the people care about now is whether the ruling and opposition parties can work together to boost the economy."

"People do not want to see the opposition parties engage in political wrangling," he said.