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KMT PLANS TO INTRODUCE THIRD MOTION TO RECALL PRESIDENT NOV. 7

ROC Central News Agency

2006-11-04 16:06:07

    Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) The legislative caucus of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) announced Saturday its plan to introduce a third motion to recall President Chen Shui-bian Nov. 7.

    Caucus whip Tsai Chin-lung said the caucus will make the move unless Chen resigns within two days over corruption allegations.

    According to the plan, the motion will be submitted to the Legislative Yuan's procedures committee Nov. 7, with the goal of having the motion put to a vote Nov. 24.

    Tsai said the caucus has no plan to initiate a no-confidence vote against Premier Su Tseng-chang for the time being, because if the president is recalled, the Cabinet will have to resign en masse.

    Also, the caucus will await the results of the third recall motion before deciding whether to put forward a motion to impeach the president, Tsai said.

    The KMT announced the plan in the wake of the indictment of Chen's wife, Wu Shu-jen, on charges of forgery and corruption Friday after prosecutors determined the first lady had used others' invoices to claim NT$14.8 million (US$450,000) from the state affairs fund between July 2002 and March 2006.

    The president was named along with the first lady in the corruption charges, but he was not charged because of the judicial immunity that he enjoys as the head of state.

    The KMT and its ally, the opposition People First Party, had previously made two attempts to recall Chen over the suspected scandal over the last five months, but the motions both failed to obtain the support of a two-thirds majority in the legislature -- the threshold that must be passed for such a motion to be put to a national referendum.

    The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) , an ally of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , which was opposed to the recall motion on the previous two occasions, said Saturday it will support the third motion to be put forward by the KMT.

    However, TSU Chairman Su Chin-chiang said his party objects to the KMT's call for Chen to step down within two days, adding that the public should give the president a chance to explain the matter and give the DPP some time to handle the crisis.

    The TSU believes that the issue should be dealt with according to the established democratic mechanism to let the people judge for themselves whether the president should be ousted from office, Su said.

    While pushing for the third presidential recall motion, the legislature should not ignore other important jobs such as passing the clean government "sunshine bills" and the budget for a long-stalled arms procurement package from the United States, Su said.

(By Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li