After many months of campaigning, Taiwan’s “Great Recall” came to a halt on Saturday with the unexpected defeat of recall efforts at the polls. Of 24 Kuomintang (KMT) legislators and one mayor up for recall,

On July 26, Taiwan will set a new record for a developed democracy, holding recall referendums for 24 opposition legislators as well as one opposition mayor. This is nothing to be proud of; the mass recalls of more than a fifth of Taiwan’s legislature are the latest sign of a political crisis that has largely gone unnoticed internationally.