Taiwan oppn lines up 3rd bid to oust President

Tsipei, Nov 6: Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's opponents today accused him of trying to buy time with his denial of corruption allegations, while opposition lawmakers made plans for another parliamentary motion to oust him.

Prosecutors pitched the president into the biggest political crisis of his six years in office last week, saying they had enough evidence to indict him -- though he could not be prosecuted while in office.

They also indicted Chen's wife for embezzlement and receipt forgery in a case involving misuse of 448,000 dollar.

Brushing off Chen's denials of wrongdoing, an opposition leader said legislators would introduce a so-called ''recall'' motion to parliament, the third in less than half a year, on Friday.

But the opposition parties, which have a slim majority in parliament, would need at least 12 ruling party members to back the motion. Were it to pass, the motion would trigger a voter referendum on whether to get rid of the president.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party's spokesman said there would be no dissent.

Nevertheless, political uncertainty weighed on Taiwan's markets on Monday. The main stock index was down 0.55 per cent at 0830 hrs IST, while the Taiwan dollar weakened from a one-month high to T32.987 dollar against the US dollar.

Opposition party members said Chen's ouster was necessary because he had ''cheated'' the public and, in an address lat night, had cast doubt on the legal system to handle questions about use of the presidential office's state affairs budget.

''Of course, this recall motion is going to have new content -- the state affairs budget,'' said Tsai Chin-long, a spokesman for the main opposition Nationalist Party. ''Before there was no reliable evidence.'' ''The president has said the legal departments are not necessarily accurate, so how can we trust the legal system?'' Tsai said, referring to Chen's remarks questioning the prosecutor's findings.

Chen promised during his address to resign if his wife, Wu Shu-chen, was found guilty. But opposition members believe that was a time-buying tactic -- one analyst said the courts could take more than a year to hear the case.

Some Taiwan newspapers accused the president, who has weathered months of street protests, of lying about his role in the state affairs budget case.

In China, which sees Taiwan as part of its territory and accuses Chen of trying to split the self-ruled island from Beijing, a newspaper predicted the president would hold onto power.

''He bears the curse that as soon as he steps down he'll be prosecuted, and he certainly knows what this means for him and his family,'' the overseas edition of the Communist Party-run People's Daily reported.

Reuters