Taiwan President Lai Ching-te marked his second anniversary in office on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Legislative Yuan held a recorded vote on the impeachment case against President Lai—the first such impeachment of a president in the constitutional history of the Republic of China. Opposition lawmakers all voted in favor, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus unanimously voted against. The result was 56 votes in favor and 50 against, failing to reach the two-thirds threshold required. The presidential impeachment case did not pass.
After voting ended, the counting began around 11:12 a.m. Even before all votes were tallied, it was already determined that with 7 legislators not collecting ballots and over 31 legislators voting “against impeachment,” the Blue-White camp’s proposal failed to reach the threshold and was blocked.
After Premier Cho Jung-tai announced he would not countersign or implement the Financial Planning Act, opposition legislators, expressing their dissatisfaction, initiated impeachment proceedings against President Lai Ching-te. On December 26 last year, the Legislative Yuan, with the numerical advantage of the Blue and White camp, resolved to refer the presidential impeachment case to the Grand Committee for review. After public hearings, investigations, and review sessions, today the full Legislative Yuan conducted a recorded vote.
The Blue and Green caucuses respectively held internal meetings on the eve of voting to confirm their voting intentions. The DPP caucus resolved to unanimously vote against the impeachment. DPP caucus convener Tsai Chi-chang said, “When the Executive Yuan is focused on boosting the economy and improving people’s livelihoods, I think the Legislative Yuan should not continue with political maneuvering and infighting. I believe this is what our people expect. We will continue working to communicate with the opposition, but today’s impeachment case against President Lai totally lacks legitimacy and has no support from society. The DPP caucus will unanimously vote against impeachment.”
The Blue and White caucuses declared they would enter the chamber and vote in favor, supporting impeachment. KMT caucus convener Fu Kun-chi said this was the most direct expression of civil rights on the government's current performance. Fu Kun-chi: “I think this represents Lai Ching-te’s report card for these two years. We will leave a very clear mark for all our citizens to see, reflecting over the past two years how the country has done on national security, economic development, all trades and industries, tourism, services, whether people’s livelihoods have improved, and whether people can live in peace and security. Today, we will express ourselves very clearly.”
This morning the Legislative Yuan processed the recorded vote on the presidential impeachment case. The results showed that out of 106 legislators who collected ballots, 56 voted in favor of impeachment and 50 against. Since this did not meet the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority, the impeachment case did not pass.
Currently, the Legislative Yuan has 113 seats. According to party seat distributions: the Kuomintang, with two non-affiliated legislators, Chen Chao-ming and Kao Chin Su-mei, brings its caucus total to 54 seats; the DPP has 51 seats; and the Taiwan People’s Party has 8 seats.