Presidential Impeachment Motion Fails; DPP Hopes for Rational Cross-Party Discussions on National Security

Central News Agency (CNA), Taipei, May 19 (Reporter Tseng Yi-ning) — The Legislative Yuan held a roll-call vote today on an impeachment motion against President Lai Ching-te, which failed to meet the threshold for passage. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip, Chuang Jui-hsiung, stated that he hopes after the impeachment saga, the ruling and opposition parties can jointly and rationally discuss and supervise bills related to public livelihood and national security. The Legislative Yuan held a roll-call vote on the impeachment motion for President Lai today, with both 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 DPP legislators voted against it. According to regulations, the motion did not reach the required threshold for passage, and thus the impeachment failed. In an interview after the roll-call vote, Chuang Jui-hsiung stated that the reason for this impeachment motion was that Premier Cho Jung-tai did not countersign the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, and for that, they moved to impeach a president elected by the people. He called it "highly inappropriate" for the opposition parties to launch an impeachment motion, leveraging their majority in the legislature, and using it as a tool for parliamentary struggle. Chuang said that impeachment is an extremely serious matter in the constitutional design of the Republic of China, and to initiate it so lightly is clearly to start a political struggle. The opposition parties were also well aware that the threshold for impeachment is extremely high. Knowing that such an outcome would cause political turmoil, they still proceeded with this political strife under the guise of their majority, which ultimately ended in failure. However, seeing the opposition parties grinning and treating such a serious matter lightly after casting their votes, he expressed strong regret and condemnation. Chuang believes that the ruling team has also presented some substantive policies today, and he hopes that after the impeachment issue is over, the ruling and opposition parties can work together for more rational discussions and supervision of bills concerning public livelihood and national security. Such meaningless escalations of confrontation between the parties are of no help to the country or the people. "The existence of a political party is, in fact, for the people," Chuang said. Any such endlessly escalating struggles are merely confrontations between parties and do nothing to help the country's international reputation. (Editor: Su Lung-chi) 1150519