TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A draft amendment to Taiwan’s electoral law put forth by the Kuomintang (KMT) seeking to raise the threshold for recall will be discussed in the legislature on July 4.

KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) issued a statement Friday and said that the draft amendment changes the threshold to require that the number of votes for recall should be higher than the number of votes the official was elected with, per CNA. It also seeks to instate the requirement that recall campaigns can not target elected officials within their first year in office.

Hsu said that while the recall system is an “important democratic tool,” it can also be misused. She said the process gives the public the opportunity to remove incompetent public officials, but said recalls can be used as a tool of political revenge.

Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) said that her party’s caucus will block the amendments. She said the amendments do not reflect public opinion, and accused the KMT of using the amendments for its own advantage. Fellow DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) also criticized the amendments on Friday, saying in a post on social media that the KMT knew it had lost public support, and was trying to amend the law to save face.

The threshold for electoral recall of public officials in Taiwan was lowered to its current 25% in 2016, though to initiate a public proposal for a recall requires only 1% of voters to register support. Since the law was changed multiple elected officials have become the target of recall campaigns, with Kaohsiung City Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) becoming the first Taiwan official to be removed from office via the process in 2020.

The proposed amendments come as Keelung City Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) faces a recall campaign that has already progressed to the second of three stages. Political action groups spearheading the campaign accuse Hsieh of incompetence, and have criticized his administration’s handling of a controversial property development.

Also on Friday, KMT Chair Eric Chu (朱立倫) came out in support of his party’s mayor, and accused the DPP of orchestrating the recall campaign. “The whole party is trying to kill one person,” Chu told reporters in Keelung.  

The comment was made as a response to criticism from DPP Legislators, who have accused the KMT of using their whole party to propose amendments that will save Hsieh from recall. Representatives of the Shanhai Citizen’s Movement to Take Down Liang (山海公民拆樑行動), the group promoting the recall of Hsieh, have denied accusations of partisanship.