By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday announced that it would launch a no-confidence vote against the Cabinet, saying President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “failed policies” after his re-election are “too much to take” for the public.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said his party would appeal for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) support on the vote in the legislature.
Ma has turned his back on the public since winning the January election, enacting a series of unpopular policies, including fuel and electricity price rises, relaxing a ban on imports of beef with traces of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine, pushing a capital gains tax, as well as pursuing a 12-year compulsory education plan and his “one country, two areas” proposal, Huang said.
“How are a president with a disapproval rating of 62.5 percent and a premier with a disapproval rating of 51 percent supposed to lead this country? That is why we call for a vote of no confidence in the Cabinet,” Huang told a press conference.
DPP party whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said his party supported the proposal and would like to see opposition parties, including the People First Party, join hands in implementing it before May 20, when Ma is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term.
The Act Governing the Exercise of Rights of the Legislative Yuan (立法院職權行使法) stipulates that the legislature may propose a no-confidence vote against the premier after collecting the signatures of more than one-third of the total number of legislators.
The motion is deemed passed if half the lawmakers vote for it.