Taiwanese voters rejected a bid to oust about one-fifth of their lawmakers, all from the opposition Nationalist Party, in a recall election Saturday, dampening hopes for the ruling party to flip the balance of power in the self-ruled island’s legislature.

It was a mad dash to the finish, with Taiwanese on both sides seeing the vote as a battle for the future of their country.

An important reason why the recall vote was defeated is a testament to the Taiwanese people’s desire to maintain a thriving democracy and a semblance of checks and balances but on a very practice level,

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a move to oust 24 lawmakers of the main opposition party, Beijing-friendly Kuomintang. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) for claiming that Taiwan’s ruling party was guilty of “political manipulation” and that it had lost public support.

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Sunday said that the failure of a recall vote targeting opposition lawmakers in Taiwan's local legislature shows that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s political manipulation runs against the will of the people.