Campaigners have submitted 12 more recall petitions against opposition Kuomintang lawmakers, citing national security concerns and incompetence.
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00:00While President Lai tries to get the five branches of government on the same page,
00:04there were no signs of a let-up in political hostilities.
00:08Another batch of recall petitions were handed in even as the president held the meeting.
00:13Our reporter Tiffany Wang has more from outside the Central Election Commission in Taipei.
00:18Tiffany, what does this latest round of recall petitions signal?
00:21Well, just hours ago, we saw dozens of campaigners come here to the Central Election Commission
00:30to submit petitions to recall 12 opposition Kuomintang lawmakers, submitting tens of thousands
00:38of signatures that they hope will kick-start the process to get these elected officials
00:42out of office.
00:44And they had representatives from all over Taiwan come to voice their support for this
00:50movement.
00:51And they even came from here in the capital in Taipei to Taichung on the west coast, and
00:57even flying in from as far as the outlying islands of Jinmen, which are just three kilometers
01:02away from the coast of China.
01:05And some of the representatives stated that they were especially concerned about KMT lawmakers'
01:10connections to China and what that could mean for national security in Taiwan.
01:15It's not that we have hatred for minority legislators, or that we're helping the KMT
01:21win back the majority in Congress.
01:24It's just that we've all seen that the blue-and-white legislators in Congress all
01:29listen to Fu Kunqi, and Fu Kunqi listens directly to Wang Funing, the chairman of the
01:35Communist Party of China in Beijing.
01:40These 12 KMT lawmakers join a growing list of politicians in Taiwan facing recall campaigns.
01:48That number is now over 40 across party lines.
01:52And campaigners on both sides cite national security concerns as well as corruption concerns.
01:59And most recently we've even seen anger over budget cuts to the government's central
02:05budget.
02:06Those cuts were led by the KMT.
02:08And we saw another sort of statement by 200 writers who were angered over cuts to the
02:15Ministry of Culture.
02:17Now this is all part of growing chaos between the political parties and the branches of
02:22government in Taiwan.
02:23And this is just the latest battle in the fight for power in the legislature where no
02:28party holds a majority.
02:32And what's the next step for these recalls?
02:35Well, this is just the first round of signatures.
02:38There will be a second round of signature petitioning.
02:42If enough of those signatures are verified, then these officials will be officially put
02:48to a recall vote, which means that this year we could see potentially over 40 recall votes.
02:54And if all of those officials are successfully recalled, we could see 40 by-elections to
03:02replace them.
03:04Of course, that's still a long ways to go.
03:06And with President Lai's meeting earlier today, it's possible that we could see a
03:11cool-down to all these tensions brewing in the political atmosphere here.