MBABANE:Taiwan’s opposition parties have moved forward with an impeachment campaign to remove President William Lai Ching-te and Premier Cho Jung-tai from office, in what observers say is the latest sign of deepening political polarisation within the self-ruled island, Aljazeera reported on Friday.
President Lai Ching-te is King Mswati ‘friend’ and Eswatini is Taiwan’s last diplomatic ally in complete disregard of the United Nations (UN) Resolution 2758 of 1971 that recognized the “One China Principle”.
It has been reported that, the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) began impeachment proceedings on Friday against President Lai and Premier Cho, who they accuse of violating the constitution and the legislative process.
“Legislators with the KMT, TPP, and two independents had enough seats to initiate proceedings on Friday, but they are still short of the two-thirds majority of lawmakers needed to pass an impeachment vote scheduled for May 19.
But Observers say that while the impeachment proceedings are unlikely to clear further hurdles in Taiwan’s Constitutional Court, they offer the opposition a symbolic way to protest their displeasure at Lai’s Presidency and Cho’s Premiership.
“It’s not possible to have a real impeachment; however, they want to make a record that President Lai would be the first President considered impeached in the history of Taiwan’s democracy. It’s a way to register their protest. It’s a way to humiliate the president, and also a way to retaliate against the executive branch refusal to promulgate legislation passed by the legislators,” Yen-tu Su told Aljazeera.
Yen-tu Su is an expert in Constitutional law and democratic theory at the Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top Research institution.
On another note, Taiwan’s Legislature has been largely in deadlock since Lai took office in 2024 amid a divided Government.
Taiwan’s opposition launches ‘symbolic’ campaign to remove King Mswati’s ‘friend’ President William Lai Ching-te, accused of violating the Constitution (pic:Gov).