DPP Questions if Impeachment Was to Please Xi; Ko Chih-en's Office Hits Back at 'Smear Campaign'

(CNA, Kaohsiung, May 19, by reporter Tsai Meng-yu) The Legislative Yuan today failed to pass a presidential impeachment motion. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus in the Kaohsiung City Council criticized Kuomintang (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Ko Chih-en for supporting the impeachment against public opinion, solely to appease Xi Jinping. Ko Chih-en's office countered, accusing the green camp of only knowing how to engage in "red-smearing" and arrogantly trampling on Taiwan's democracy. The Legislative Yuan held a roll-call vote today on the impeachment motion against President Lai Ching-te, with both the ruling and opposition parties mobilizing their members. The vote resulted in 56 legislators from the KMT and TPP (pan-blue and white) camps voting in favor of the impeachment, while 50 DPP legislators voted against it. According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, the motion failed as it did not meet the required threshold of a two-thirds majority of all legislators. The DPP caucus of the Kaohsiung City Council issued a press release today stating that KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate and legislator Ko Chih-en was confronting mainstream public opinion. They claimed she pushed for the impeachment of President Lai Ching-te, despite knowing it couldn't pass, merely to please the "real dictator," Chinese President Xi Jinping. In response, Ko Chih-en's campaign office stated that the opposition party proposed the impeachment motion based on the power granted by the "Constitution of the Republic of China," raising questions through legal means. In contrast, they argued that the DPP's tactic of "red-smearing" and labeling anyone with a different stance as a "Chinese communist sympathizer" is the true act of arrogance that ignores the people's voice and tramples on Taiwan's democracy. Additionally, DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor candidates Chang Yi-li and Chang Yao-chung criticized Ko for maliciously amending the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, boycotting the general budget, and cutting military procurement and even Chinese language education budgets. They questioned whether Ko's every proposal and co-signature was the best evidence of "presenting treasures to China and being behaviorally pro-China." Ko Chih-en's campaign office stated that the DPP's flank organizations distort Taiwan's democratic politics into "supervising the DPP is pro-China; questioning the budget is selling out Taiwan." Such political maneuvering, they said, is not only despicable but also lowers the standard of political discourse and truly harms Taiwan's democracy. (Editor: Huang Ming-hsi) 1150519