By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Voters in Taiwan were casting ballots on Saturday on whether to recall one-fifth of the island’s parliament, all from the major opposition party, in a move supporters hope will send a message to China and opponents say is an assault on democracy.
Taiwan’s government said the island’s largest-ever recall vote has faced “unprecedented” election interference by China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own, over Taiwan’s rejection.
The election could reshape the Taiwan legislature and present an opportunity for President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party to regain its majority.
While Lai won last year’s presidential election, the DPP lost its legislative majority. The opposition has flexed its muscles since then to pass laws the government has opposed and impose budget cuts, complicating efforts to boost defence spending in particular.
The political drama comes as China ramps up a military and diplomatic pressure campaign against Taiwan to assert the territorial claims that Lai and his government reject. Lai has offered talks with Beijing many times but been rebuffed. It calls him a “separatist”.
The heated recall campaign has been closely watched by China, whose Taiwan Affairs Office and state media have repeatedly commented on the vote and used some of the same talking points as the main opposition party Kuomintang to lambaste Lai, Reuters reported this week.
Taipei this week said Beijing was “clearly” trying to interfere in its democracy and it was up to Taiwan’s people to decide who should be removed from or stay in office.
Saturday’s vote, culminating a campaign begun by civic groups, will decide whether to oust 24 KMT lawmakers and hold by-elections for their seats. Recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers will occur on August 23.
The recall groups say theirs is an “anti-communist” movement, accusing the KMT of selling out Taiwan by sending lawmakers to China, not supporting defence spending and bringing chaos to parliament. The KMT rejects the accusations, denouncing Lai’s “dictatorship” and “green terror” – referring to the DPP’s party colour.
The KMT went into full campaign mode against what they called a “malicious” recall that failed to respect the result of last year’s parliamentary election, saying they have simply been keeping lines of communication open with Beijing and exercising legitimate oversight of Lai’s government.
Polls close at 4 p.m. (0800 GMT) and results should become clear later in the evening.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)
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