Taiwanese people wear Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou’s mask during a protest against Ma, in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday. AP
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Thousands of Taiwanese are rallying against President Ma Ying-jeou amid plummeting opinion polls and bipartisan anger over wiretapping of legislators.
About 20,000 protesters gathered in front of the Presidential Office in downtown Taipei on Sunday to demand Ma step down over a host of issues, including economic management and a wiretapping scandal that incurred the wrath of legislators across party lines.
The evening protest by black-clad demonstrators was the largest of separate grass roots demonstrations Sunday in the capital. Protesters are demanding the abolition of the Special Investigation Division, a prosecutorial body whose wiretap data Ma used to attack Legislative Speaker and party rival Wang Jin-pyng.
Ma was comfortably re-elected on a platform of improving economic ties with China, but the Wang-led legislature is delaying a key cross-strait economic agreement.