Taipei: Groups campaigning to recall legislators submitted vote proposals targeting a dozen lawmakers of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Monday, bringing to 44 the number of lawmakers facing potential recall votes.

According to Focus Taiwan, among the elected KMT lawmakers targeted by the proposals submitted Monday were Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang and seven-term Legislator Yang Chiung-ying from Taichung, as well as Lin Szu-ming and Hsu Hsin-ying from Hsinchu County. Legislators Hsu Chiao-hsin, Lai Shyh-bao, and Lo Chih-chiang from Taipei, Lo Ming-tsai, Hung Mong-kai, Lin Te-fu, Chang Chih-lun, and Liao Hsien-hsiang from New Taipei were also among the 12.

These proposals followed those submitted on February 3 in a bid to recall 19 other KMT lawmakers, after lawmakers in the current Legislature concluded the first of their four-year terms on January 31, 2025. According to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, a recall petition can only be initiated after an elected official has served one year in office.

The initial proposal only has to meet a relatively easy threshold - getting support from more than 1 percent of the total number of eligible voters from the relevant electoral district in 25 days - to be approved. Once a proposal is verified, however, another round of campaigning is required in which the valid signatures of at least 10 percent of eligible voters in each district need to be collected within 60 days and then verified for a recall vote to take place.

One of the campaigners who has led the recall campaign against KMT legislators is Robert Tsao, a former chairman of Taiwanese chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp. Tsao said the nationwide recall campaign is aimed at "protecting democracy" in Taiwan against threats from the Chinese Communist Party, not a faceoff between the blue and green camps.

The blue and green camps Tsao mentioned usually referred to the two major political parties in Taiwan, the KMT and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), respectively, because of the main colors of their party emblems. The KMT holds 52 of the 113 seats in the Legislature, compared to 51 for the DPP, eight for the Taiwan People's Party, and two independents ideologically aligned with the KMT.

Only the 79 lawmakers directly elected by their constituencies can be recalled. Of those 79 seats, 39 are held by the KMT, and 38 are held by the DPP. In response to Tsao's remarks, Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin said Monday that she believed voters could see through the businessman's tactic of painting people as siding with the Chinese Communist Party and would oppose the recall campaign.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, the CEC said it had received 44 recall vote proposals for lawmakers. Beside the 31 KMT lawmakers, recall vote proposals targeting 13 DPP lawmakers, including former Deputy Speaker Tsai Chi-chang from Taichung, have been submitted to the commission in recent days.

Other DPP lawmakers who could face a recall vote are Ho Hsin-chun from Taichung, New Taipei legislators Su Chiao-hui, Chang Hung-lu, Wu Chi-ming, and Lee Kuen-cheng, and Tainan lawmakers Lin Chun-hsien and Wang Ting-yu. The remaining DPP lawmakers are Wu Szu-yao and Wu Pei-yi from Taipei, Chen Kuan-ting from Chiayi County, as well as two elected to represent Indigenous peoples - Chen Ying and Wu Li-hua/Saidhai Tahovecahe.