The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) New Taipei City (新北市) branch yesterday warned 10 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers representing the city against endorsing two controversial proposals in the second extra legislative session, saying that it would immediately launch a recall bid against them if they supported the measures.
The warning covered the cross-strait service trade agreement and a proposed referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in the city’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
“Regardless of what [DPP] headquarters thinks, we are issuing this ultimatum because the KMT legislators are supposed to speak for our constituents, not their political party,” Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), the chapter’s director, told a press conference.
The DPP office called the press conference along with several business owners and anti-nuclear group leaders on the first day of the extra session, during which lawmakers are expected to review and vote on the referendum and the trade pact.
The office demanded the planned referendum be called off, construction of the nuclear power plant be suspended and the trade agreement either be reviewed clause-by-clause or for lawmakers to vote for it to be renegotiated.
The process of recalling a lawmaker under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) is not an easy one, but the branch office would initiate the bids if it deems them necessary, Lo said.
The act requires a minimum of 2 percent of the total electors in a legislator’s original electoral district to propose the recall bid for it to be legitimate. If the proposal is accepted, it must then be jointly petitioned by no less than 13 percent of the total electors, the act says. The bid can must then receive votes from more than half of the total electors, more than 50 percent of which have to support the recall if the motion is to pass.
At the press conference, Terry Chang (張天立), president of online bookstore TAAZE, and Chen Chao-hsiung (陳昭雄), general manager of Red and Blue Color Printing Co, expressed concern about the potential impact of allowing Chinese investment in the service sector, saying that the government failed to get a fair deal because China did not offer reciprocal market access.
Nuclear-Free Homeland Alliance executive director Lee Cho-han (李卓翰) told the press conference that the government should quit stalling on the Gongliao plant.
“If the government is aware that the referendum is not be a viable solution to the issue, it should suspend the project,” Lee said.
‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportation Taipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. The survey, which is to be published in the magazine’s July/August issue, selected the world’s top 25 cities based on factors including cost of living, retail, hospitality, culture and access to green spaces, as well as feedback from Monocle correspondents. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. The survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five.
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