Taiwan’s opposition launches ‘symbolic’ campaign to impeach president

Taiwan’s opposition launches ‘symbolic’ campaign to impeach president Opposition parties accuse President Lai and Premier Cho of violating Taiwan’s constitution in impeachment bid. 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. 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. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,401 list 2 of 4 Polish jets intercept Russian reconnaissance plane spotted near airspace list 3 of 4 US releases missile launch video after northwest Nigeria strike list 4 of 4 North Korea’s Kim Jong Un pushes more missile production as ‘war deterrent’ 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. 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,” said Yen-tu Su, an expert in constitutional law and democratic theory at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top research institution. “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,” he told Al Jazeera. Taiwan’s legislature has been largely in deadlock since Lai took office in 2024 amid a divided government. Though Lai led his centre-left Democratic Progressive Party to an unprecedented third consecutive term in the presidential office last year, his party has since lost its majority in the legislature, and political deadlock has taken hold. Political parties have been locked in legislative fights over everything from the budget to Taiwan’s relationship with China, and the makeup of the island’s constitutional court - whose work has been frozen for much of the past year due to the infighting. Lai’s government is still struggling to pass sections of the 2026 budget, while the KMT has also blocked the president’s much-publicised supplemental $40bn bill to boost Taiwan’s defence spending. For his part, Cho earlier this month vetoed a bill that would have made it easier to allocate tax revenues between Taiwan’s local and central government, arguing that the plan was not feasible. Brian Hioe, a frequent commentator on Taiwanese politics and a non-resident fellow at the University of Nottingham’s Taiwan Research Hub, told Al Jazeera that he also thought the impeachment campaign was more of a symbolic gesture...

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