Voters in Taiwan reject bid to oust China-friendly MPs in closely watched poll • FRANCE 24 English

Let’s move to Taipei because Taiwan today is an unprecedented vote and the results are just in. It was aimed at essentially ousting politicians accused of being too close to China. It was termed the Damian, the great recall and unprecedented. It was triggered by a civic movement as well and eventually the governing party, the DPP uh have also backed basically set up to remove about a fifth of elected officials perceive it as undermining Taiwan’s democratic institutions and the vote itself polarized society. Activists on both for and against the recall. So those results now saying that voters have rejected that bid to ou the politicians. Let’s understand the what and the why, what this all means. Bring in Yan Kamazan Broomi, your correspondent in Taipei. Good to see you, Yan. Explain to us, break down for us what’s just happened and what you’re reading is now of what it means. Well, 24 legislators that campaigners were seeking to recall, 24 votes we’ve had today across the whole of Taiwan. millions of people going to the polls in this unprecedented fashion, something we’ve never seen before. We’ve had recall petitions used in the past. Normally, they’re used against individual legislators who have been corrupt, who have done something wrong, who who campaigners want to kick out for specific policy reasons. This is the first time we’ve seen this on a nation on an islandwide level. uh and 24 failures essentially for those campaigners that have spent months collecting signatures, collecting thousands of signatures, pounding the streets campaigning because they say they’re worried that the opposition legislators they’re trying to kick out have cozied up to China that the cutting of the budgets that these opposition legislators have been doing in the parliament, the slashing of defense spending and the parliamentary uh revol parliamentary reforms that they’ve been trying to push through. all campaigners say threaten to undermine Taiwanese national security and threaten to help China in its increasing aggressions towards Taiwan. Opposition parties will of course and have always absolutely refuted this. I’ve been speaking to them in the last few days. They’ve been saying that the budget cuts, the defense spending cuts are part and parcel of being in opposition. That all they’re doing is holding the president to account. They’ve pointed out and suggested that while these recall petitions have been completely constitutional according to experts I’ve been speaking to the opposition say that they think this is tantamount to rejecting the results of the election in 2024 that gave the DPP the government the presidency but denied them of a majority in the parliament and have led to gridlock that has absolutely uh laid havoc basically to the first year of the term of Taiwanese President William Lie and so we’ve seen there was a lot of hype moving into this election. Uh the supporters of it, the recall the recall campaigners really hoping that at least a few of these legislators were going to be recalled and the number of legislative recalled so far is zero. So a big disappointment for them and a big victory tonight for the KMT and the opposition. So essentially the the allegation that you’re pointing out breaks down to the fact that the opposition were accused of basically secretly influencing legislature in Taipei and Taiwan for on behalf of Beijing which they denied. I’ve just seen a message coming through as well. This is off in the aftermath. I think you’ve seen this before Yan. Let me just see this statement coming through. This is the Taiwan affairs office accusing William Lie again the president of quote engaging in dictatorship under the guise of democracy. What’s your take on where this goes? Because if this then of staying in position, this is only going to further polarize the state of of parliament, isn’t it? Well, this polarization is really something that we felt in Taiwan in recent times. It’s because the big cleavage, the big issue here really taps into people’s identity, their closeness to China, their identity as Taiwanese people. And that’s not necessarily something that can be debated over, that can be conceded on. And so polarization is and has been large. I will say it does feel like that polariz polarization has increased in recent months. Perhaps as a result of these campaigns, although the campaigners would say that they haven’t stoked polarization, that they’re trying to solve and save Taiwanese democracy. But that’s certainly the line that the opposition party have been taking that William lie that the campaigners who have been trying to recall the opposition have been stoking polarization. They’ve been saying to me at least they need William Lie, the president in Taiwan to seek unity to try and come together after this damaging uh election result or this damaging poll result for his DPP ruling party. Another interesting thing to add there you mentioned there the Chinese reaction to all of this. They have the Taiwanese authorities have been warning increasingly that China has been trying to infiltrate trying to get involved and trying to influence the results of these polls and it’s actually counterintuitive. been damaging for the opposition who have at the same time as having to bat off accusations of being pro-China now find themselves being supported by Beijing which increases these rumors and speculations that they are in league with Beijing. They will say, of course, that until there’s any proof, any concrete proof, any smoking gun evidence that KMT opposition legislators are in bed, so to speak, with Beijing, that until that is the case that the recallers need to stop uh saying what they think are lies. A disappointing moment for the recallers. And looking forward for the next few weeks, we do have another set of recall petitions coming up. Seven more opposition legislators set to face those. You have to ask yourself, will this lead to more momentum or is this going to really deflate the motivation of those campaigners that have been pushing for months? Yan, good analysis on a complicated story and a significant day. Yan Kamazan Broomi our correspondent in Taiw Taiwan.

Taiwanese voters rejected a bid to oust about one-fifth of their lawmakers, all from the opposition Nationalist Party, in a recall election Saturday, dampening hopes for the ruling party to flip the balance of power in the self-ruled island’s legislature. Details by FRANCE 24 correspondent in Taipei, Jan Camenzind Broomby.
#Taiwan #China #vote

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45 comments

  2. If the Taiwan Affairs Office had kept their mouth shut, this would have gone away quickly. That they felt the need to comment this is going to stick around longer. The CCP doesn't learn. They always play the victim… however, they're always the bully…

  3. Vast majority have decent enough IQs.
    President leading campaign to oust 100% of opposition legislators, a year into their terms, while locking up party leaders, is pure abuse of power.

  4. You know why ONLY opposition KMT legislators are having recall bullseyes draw on their backs? That’s because the ruling DPP played dirty and used Justice department prosecutors to exterminate EVERY counter effort to recall DPP legislators. An unbelievably authoritarian move we couldn’t imagine a few months ago.

  5. Lai and the DPP lose again. It is only downhill from here President Lai. Maybe take this outcome as a sign to tone down the rhetoric and seek compromise with the opposition. Or will you take the ROK Yoon approach and double down?

  6. This is showing such wrong messages to people in other parts of the world… all the pro China lawmakers who got the recall elections are the ones who have traditionally always won in the region, for decades. The number of people who voted to recall them are actually very impressive already. The failure of the recall can't be interpreted as the majority of Taiwanese are pro-China. Not to mention China is putting a lot efforts, such as misinformation, military threats, buying influencers and misleading information on TikTok etc, into interfering with the recall.

  12. First thing first, return all the stolen items, over 500,000 or so, in the Taiwan National Museum back to Beijing Palace, China.

  13. You know Taiwan is literally called the Republic of China right FRANCE 24 ENGLISH? Oh I know; no more funds from USAID lol!!!

  14. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has done nothing to address Taiwan’s domestic issues such as people’s livelihoods, energy problems, the economy, and corruption. While 90% of Taiwanese people oppose the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the DPP unjustly suppresses the opposition by labeling them as CCP supporters, simply because they hold different views. This is a divisive tactic that splits the people of Taiwan. It is the DPP that truly deserves to step down.

  15. Pro China? That is a fake issue. DPP use it as an excuse to oust KMT parties who were voted into the governmental positions. So before you do the coverage, find out the real issue and then report it! Media needs to be fair and just.

  17. The Self – ruled island has its own laws and currency and this place named Republic of China. The legislature voted their own president and lawmakers, I do not understand why people still confuse the issues.

  19. Well ,DPP calls taiwanese to fight China in a west leading proxy war just like Ukraine. But the Ukraine now loses 30% population, 18% territory, wins nothing, taught everyone a lesson😅

  22. Maybe its better to have a more pro Chinese leadership for the moment as long as they don't lose their freedom and rejoin China as a territory. We saw how China's two systems 1 country policy worked they lied like they always do to the people of Hong Kong and Macou now they are brutally oppressed and the Communist Chinese stomped out all their freedoms.

  23. Hong Kong and Taiwan are a lost cause. We have record homeless people. How about putting us first.
    Nobody from the west wants to die for the South China sea

  25. 96% of Taiwan people are Han people, which is the same as China Mainland, and the official country name of Taiwan is The Republic of China, so why it should NOT be China-friendly?

  26. Finally, the Taiwanese people have spoken. The Taiwanese want better relations with China. They want commerce and do not want a war. A triumph for common senses

  32. In West's view, KMT and TPP don't bring any value. Only DPP is the loved one, who is willing to fight war against China and help the West to weaken China as much as possible. Therefore, did you see? All the western medias are supporting DPP without any questioning if DPP is doing correctly or not.

  33. Republic of China （China) still rules Taiwan, what means 「China friendly MP」？ Why the people of Republic of China want to oust those MP who friendly to The Republic of China?

  36. 法國人認為，剛選舉過就對贏的人發動罷免，是符合民主精神的嗎 ? 是健康正常的民主運作方式嗎 ? 如果這樣做是民主的表現，那為何法國不這樣做 ? 法國的民主不如台灣 ? 這次的罷免活動若有意義，那就是，大多數台灣人民不支持台獨。

  37. minority party is the ruling party… think about that. in which democracy does the one that win only 40% of the vote get to call itself "the ruling party"? that's why they have to do the recall, to try and steal the election they lost. and the people of Taiwan is not having it, dealt them a clear 0 out of 42 defeat.

  38. it is in the West’s best interest to support DPP and see Taiwan fighting Mainland China, that is Han Chinese fighting Han Chinese. However that was clearly rejected by Taiwan people.

  45. The headline here is really poor. I imagine the majority of voters who rejected the bid because they disagree with the premise that these MPs are "China-friendly". I don't think France 24 is intentionally being biased here, this is more a result of laziness, but that makes this more annoying.

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