Epic Recall, Epic Fail - by Angelica Oung - Taipology
“Epic Recall, Epic Win!” (大罷免，大成功) was almost an inescapable battle cry for the last few months in Taiwan. Everywhere you went there were bright-eyed bushy-tailed young volunteers asking you if you’d like to recall your local KMT legislator to “protect Taiwan and Counter China” because “they’re all in cahoots with the CCP” and “we have to protect our democracy before its too late.”
Well today was Recall Election Day and to my HUGE surprise, not a single one of the 24 KMT legislators up for recall were successfully sniped. Not even Yeh Yuan Chih, Freshman KMT legislator from the super-green Banchiao district. His nickname became “soft persimmon” because it was known he was the low-hanging fruit when it comes to recalls. I think Yeh is even surprised Yeh made it, albeit with a slim margin.
There’s going to be another round of 7 KMT legislators up for recall on 8/23, but not only have the momentum gone out of the whole venture, it’s also exceedingly unlikely that they’ll convert at least six KMT legislators into DPP legislators in order for the DPP to flip the legislature.
