TAIPEI - The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) failure in their Taiwan recall vote endeavors on Saturday is widely seen as a sweeping victory for the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party and a direct expression of public dissatisfaction with DPP authorities led by Lai Ching-te.

DPP authorities suffered a major political blow as all recall votes targeting 24 legislators of the KMT proved unsuccessful on Saturday. During ballot counting on the same day, "no" votes consistently outnumbered "yes" votes in all 24 recall cases, sinking every DPP proposal.

In addition, a recall vote targeting the suspended mayor of Hsinchu also failed to pass.

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An editorial by Taiwan's United Daily News noted that faced with what it called a climate of "green terror" created by the DPP, many previously silent voters were spurred to cast resounding "no" votes out of feelings of frustration -- describing the outcome as a sharp public rebuke to Lai and the DPP authorities.

Since taking office, DPP authorities and their leader Lai have been accused of fueling political polarization and demonizing legislative oversight by the opposition -- a tactic aimed at drawing attention away from their poor performance. The paper added that Lai's hardline political approach had ultimately backfired, undermining both his credibility and the public's trust.

Over the past year and more, public dissatisfaction with the DPP authorities has been mounting in Taiwan, stemming from their obstruction of cross-Strait exchanges, a submissive yielding to the US regarding high tariffs, and their sluggish and inadequate response in terms of disaster relief work after a typhoon hit the island in recent days.

This growing public discontent was reflected in a poll conducted by Yahoo Kimo, a major portal website in Taiwan -- which showed that 88.1 percent of respondents were "very satisfied" with the recall vote results.

Meanwhile, netizens flooded Lai's latest social media post, with some expressing frustration over the political infighting and others mocking the failed recall campaign as a waste of effort. By 10 am on Monday, more than 38,000 comments had been left under the post.

The DPP, notably, currently only holds 51 seats in Taiwan's 113-seat legislature. Observers believe that while the recall campaign, which began at the start of the year, appeared to be initiated by "civil groups," it was in fact orchestrated by the DPP authorities -- in an attempt to reverse their disadvantage in the legislature through recalls and by-elections.

On June 20, just as the recall vote date was announced, Lai promptly launched his so-called "10 lectures on unity" campaign. However, each speech was met with a flood of criticism, and as of now, only four of them have been delivered.

Concerns over the social impact of the recall campaign have also grown. Taiwan-based newspaper China Times said in an editorial that the recall bid had opened a "Pandora's box" of hatred and infighting within Taiwan society. If this continues, the paper warned, all that may remain in Taiwan is division and hostility.

Reports estimate that a single recall in a local district costs about 17 million New Taiwan dollars (roughly $576,600), while a larger constituency requires up to 20 million New Taiwan dollars -- all funded by taxpayers.

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Legislator Huang Jen urged the authorities to focus on real issues, such as soaring housing prices, stagnant wages and unequal access to education -- instead of wasting energy on the likes of political campaigning, vendettas and appeasement of foreign powers, as Lai has chosen to do.

Critics further accuse the DPP of using the recall campaign to spread "Taiwan independence" rhetoric and intensify cross-Strait confrontation in pursuit of political gain. However, results of the vote over this past weekend confirm that such crude tactics have long been seen for what they are by the public, whose mainstream desire is clearly in favor of peaceful cross-Strait relations.

What is also evident, is that the DPP, as a minority party in the legislature, should have focused on sound performance to regain public trust, rather than resorting to mass recalls, said Cheng Tzu-chen, a professor at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, while adding that this approach revealed a lack of democratic maturity and had only alienated the public further.