The Appendectomy Project recall campaign aimed at Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers reported a good response to its signature-gathering activities near polling stations yesterday.
The campaign has targeted legislators Alex Tsai (蔡正元), Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池), whom organizers said have failed the public by adhering solely to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) instructions.
A spokesperson for the project, known as “Mr Lin from Taipei” (台北林先生), said that by midday, the 18 stalls in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts — which are Tsai’s constituencies — had collected at least 15,000 signatures, and extra volunteers had been called in to help cope with the demand.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Given that the campaign had already collected 5,000 signatures, Lin said there was a good chance of reaching the threshold number of 38,939 by the end of the day.
The project was able to set up just 20 stands in Wu’s constituency — which covers six administrative districts in New Taipei City — the spokesman said.
However, almost 10,000 signatures had been collected by midday, he said, adding that the threshold for a recall in Wu’s district was 37,469 signatures.
The recall threshold for Lin Hung-chih, who represents the more densely populated Banciao District (板橋) in New Taipei City, is 27,677 signatures, the project said, adding that more than 5,000 signatures had been collected in the morning, with people lining up for 10 minutes to sign at the Sinpu High School polling station.
Although a recall campaign is allowed to operate on election day, the law forbids any campaigning or other disturbances within 30m of polling stations. Police officers were assigned to enforce this rule and prevent disruptions, but they were reported to have exceeded their powers in some locations.
Lin said that police had repeatedly told the campaigners to move their stand from near Dongxin Elementary School in Nangang.
The stand was set up outside a yellow tape barrier, but police told them to move three times — until they reached a dead end where they could not move any farther away and had to dismantle their stand, activists said. The situation was resolved after the project sent a lawyer to negotiate with the police and the volunteers were allowed to set-up a stand again.
A stand was also set up near Wunshan Elementary School in Greater Taichung, where the project is trying to prompt a recall of KMT Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), who represents the Nantun District (南屯).
An altercation occurred when a borough warden reportedly got into a heated argument with volunteers manning the stand. One volunteer, surnamed Ke (柯), accused the warden of assault after reportedly receiving scratches on his neck.
Police are investigating the incident.
The name Appendectomy Project was chosen because ithe term for pan-blue camp legislators in Mandarin Chinese, lan wei (藍委), is pronounced the same as the word for “appendix” (闌尾).
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