Thousands rally for Taiwan leader’s resignation

Thousands of people took to the streets of Taipei in a series of protests on Sunday, hurling shoes at the portrait of the beleaguered President Ma Ying-jeou and demanding he step down.

The demonstrators, from several groups, asked Ma, also the chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), to shoulder responsibility for the economic sluggishness and controversial government policies that have pushed his approval rate down to low levels.

Kicking off the series of demonstrations, hundreds of angry protestors gathered at a rally barricaded by police outside the presidential residence in downtown Taipei in the morning.

Television images showed the protestors chanting slogans and holding signs reading “Down with Ma Ying-jeou!”

At nearly the same time, hundreds of people from another group called the “National Alliance of Workers from National Factory Shutdowns” vented their anger at another corner of the capital, hurling shoes towards the portraits of Ma and some other politicians.

Pressure on the Ma administration has mounted after local workers lost their jobs following the mass shifting of assembly lines from the island to the Chinese mainland to capitalise on cheap manpower and land prices there.