Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: 民進黨立法院黨團/Facebook
DPP LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS leader Ker Chien-ming has called for recalling all 39 pan-Blue KMT legislators, as well as two independents that normally vote together with the KMT.
The other 12 KMT legislators are those elected through the party vote, as a result of which they are not allowed to be recalled by law. The 39 KMT legislators that Ker calls for targeting, then, are district representatives, in that recall provisions only pertain to district representatives
In response, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Wang Hung-wei has called for recalling the DPP’s 38 district legislators. In addition to the 38 district legislators, the DPP currently holds 13 legislative seats through proportional party voting.
Wang has signaled several possible targets including Chang Hung-lu, Rosalia Wu, Su Chiao-hui, and Wu Pei-yi. The KMT would also be likely to target Huang Jie, seeing as like Wu, she is a member of the generation of pan-Green politicians that entered electoral politics after the Sunflower Movement. The KMT has most often targeted Sunflower Movement activists turned politicians as part of its recall campaigns.
On the other hand, the DPP would be likely to target hated KMT politicians who are particular targets of ire of the Bluebird Movement. These politicians would be those who have made statements perceived as overly pro-China, such as Hsu Chiao-hsin, Chen Yu-chen, or Weng Hsiao-ling, who is seen as the architect of many of the legal measures pushed for by the KMT in the past year–inclusive of expanding legislative powers in a way so as to strip powers away from the judiciary and executive branches of government and a proposal that would effectively freeze the Constitutional Court.
Photo credit: Eric Chu/Facebook
But, for its part, it is unclear whether the DPP would commit itself to costly recall campaigns that are unlikely to succeed. The DPP has walked back some of Ker’s comments, which may have been meant to rile up the DPP party base, but do not necessarily mean that the DPP has decided to engage on a strategy of pursuing recall votes against all KMT politicians in a way that would lead to the KMT seeking to recall all KMT politicians. In comments, DPP secretary-general Lin Yo-chang has downplayed discussion of engaging in such a recall vote in the party.
If the DPP were to seriously attempt such a strategy, this would be an attempt to shake up the composition of the Taiwanese legislature such that it could regain the majority in the Legislative Yuan. Effectively, this would be pushing for a new set of elections to reset the status quo of the legislature.
Still, this strategy is unlikely to work. Measures pushed through into legislation last month by the KMT raise the benchmarks for recalls, in that for recalls to be binding they need to see more votes than during the original election.
This fact makes it unlikely that any recall votes would be binding, which is why the DPP framed the KMT’s actions as intended to take away the constitutional right to call for a recall from the public. Yet even before the new changes passed–and even if they are eventually struck down by the Constitutional Court–it was already difficult for recalls to take place, as evidenced in the failure of the recall vote against Keelung Mayor George Hsieh.
It is unclear whether Ker is on the same page as Lai or the rest of the DPP, with some gaps showing in a recent controversy in which the DPP legislative caucus–at Ker’s direction–voted down one of Lai’s Constitutional Court nominees, Liu Ching-yi. But assuming the DPP has not committed itself to a strategy that is unlikely to succeed, it is notable that Ker did not call for recalling TPP legislators.
If so, the DPP may be aiming to capitalize on political cleavages between the TPP and KMT, taking advantage of the fact that some TPP legislators may fear being recalled, or that they may be feeling politically anxious if party leader Ko Wen-je is jailed. At the same time, the likely leader of the TPP in Ko’s absence, Huang Kuo-chang, is well known for his antagonism against Ker. This fact raises questions about how viable this strategy is.