Thirty-four legislators from Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang have seen campaigns to remove them move forward to the second of three stages in the recall process. Campaigns against ruling Democratic Progressive Party legislators have been less successful, with some relying on an extra period to remedy petition signatures.
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00:00As of Wednesday there are campaigns against 34 lawmakers all from the KMT
00:05that have made it into the second stage of the recall process. That means that
00:10they've already secured the support, the signatures of 1% of voters in their
00:15constituency and those signatures have all been verified by the Central
00:19Election Commission. Now there are four campaigns against lawmakers from the
00:23Democratic Progressive Party, the ruling party that have not passed that stage.
00:28However they haven't given extra time to remedy signatures and paperwork in
00:32that stage. But campaigners in Greater Taipei are already scrambling to gather
00:43signatures in the second tougher stage where they'll need the signatures of 10%
00:48of constituents to sign their petitions. This is all part of a massive recall
00:53movement that was spurred by the ruling party's frustration with not being able
00:57to pass any bills because opposition keeps blocking it. And their caucus
01:02leader called for a crusade against opposition lawmakers but eventually we
01:06saw campaigns against 50 lawmakers across parties. But again only those
01:11campaigns against the main opposition, Kuomintang, have moved forward so far.
01:16But recalls are still a difficult process in Taiwan. Only one lawmaker has
01:22ever been successfully removed in this manner before. And now in the second
01:26stage there is the daunting task of getting 10% of constituents to sign
01:31those petitions. And the election officials will definitely be keeping a
01:35sharp eye on verifying those signatures before they move forward to the third
01:40stage. So it is possible that some of the campaigns would end here. But even if
01:45they do pass and make it to the final voting stage they'll need to get the
01:50votes of 25% of constituents in their district to support the removal of this
01:55official in order to successfully remove them. And that's no easy feat
01:59because in Taiwan there's no such thing as absentee voting. Meaning that people
02:03will have to go back to their hometowns and submit their ballot in person. The
02:08whole process could take months and it's likely that if any of these pass on to
02:13the third voting stage we won't actually see those votes happen until the fall.
02:17But until then these campaigns are sure to keep legislators on edge.
02:22Devon Tsai, Kamma Xu and Tiffany Wong in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.