First-Ever Presidential Impeachment Motion Fails with 56 Votes in Favor, 50 Against

(Taipei, May 19, CNA) 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 issuing top-level mobilization orders. The vote resulted in 56 legislators from the KMT and TPP voting in favor of the impeachment, while 50 legislators from the DPP voted against it. According to regulations, the motion did not reach the required threshold to pass and was therefore defeated. After Premier Cho Jung-tai announced he would not countersign the Fiscal Allocation Act, KMT and TPP legislators proposed initiating impeachment proceedings against President Lai Ching-te. The Legislative Yuan convened on December 26 last year and, after a vote, the KMT and TPP passed the motion with their numerical advantage. Following a series of public hearings, committee reviews, and a formal hearing, a roll-call vote on the impeachment motion was held on May 19 this year. Before the vote, all parties stated their intentions. The KMT caucus announced its support for the impeachment and would vote unanimously. The TPP caucus said it would vote as a bloc to hold the president accountable for his dereliction of duty. The DPP caucus, however, stated that the opposition was turning the constitutional system into a political spectacle and would vote against it. The Legislative Yuan currently has 113 seats. The distribution is as follows: the KMT, including independent legislators Chen Chao-ming and Kao Chin Su-mei who caucus with them, has 54 seats; the DPP has 51 seats; and the TPP has 8 seats. The session began at 10 AM. DPP legislators Wu Ping-jui, Chen Ting-fei, and others lined up at the ballot collection points in the south and north sections of the chamber before the session started. Voting began after the meeting commenced and parliamentary staff had set up the voting booths. The entire voting and counting process went smoothly, with some legislators taking photos in the chamber to document this constitutional moment. Regarding the result, the meeting's chairman, Legislative Yuan Vice President Johnny Chiang, announced that 106 legislators had collected ballots, with 56 voting in favor of impeachment and 50 against. It is understood that the legislators who did not collect ballots were Legislative Yuan President Han Kuo-yu, Vice President Johnny Chiang, KMT legislator Chen Yu-chen, independent legislator Chen Chao-ming, and DPP legislator Kuo Yu-ching, KMT legislator Liao Wei-hsiang, and TPP legislator Chen Chao-tzu, who were in Geneva for events related to the World Health Assembly (WHA) organized by civil society groups. According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution, an impeachment motion against the president or vice president requires a proposal by one-half of all legislators and a resolution by two-thirds or more, after which a petition is filed with the Constitutional Court for trial. If the impeachment is upheld by two-thirds or more of the total number of Grand Justices, the impeached person is immediately removed from office. In other words, the first presidential impeachment motion in the constitutional history of the Republic of China did not pass.