The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and the Appendectomy Project yesterday co-organized parades in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) to collect more signatures for the petition to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), as it is likely to become the first recall petition in history to make it to polling stations.
Holding placards, flags, as well as chanting slogans, dozens of TSU members and Appendectomy Project volunteers assembled outside an elementary school in Neihu before breaking into different groups to simultaneously parade through five traditional open-air markets in the area to campaign for the recall and collect signatures.
“It is true that we have collected a little over the 40,000 signatures required to pass the second-phase of the recall process, but we must collect at least 5,000 more to make sure that we can pass the threshold for the second phase,” said Tseng Chih-kuang (曾志光), an Appendectomy Project volunteer, to passers-by at the assembly point.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Based on our experience, the Central Election Commission (CEC) will look at each recall petition closely, and they disqualify, on average, 8 percent of petition forms. Therefore we must have as many signatures as possible to make sure that the number of signed petitions will be over the threshold even after the commission disqualifies some,” Tseng added.
According to the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法), a recall petition must be endorsed by at least two percent of eligible voters in the electoral district.
After the petition passes the CEC review, the petition must be endorsed by at least 13 percent of the eligible voters who did not sign the petition in the initial phase to make it to polling stations.
Appendectomy Project volunteer Tsai Wang-lin (蔡旺霖) said that from Nov. 16 to Nov. 29, only a little more than 4,000 people signed the second-phase petition, leaving them worried.
“However, the number of second-phase endorsers grew suddenly to more than 40,000 on Nov. 29, election day, as we set up petition stations outside polling stations,” he said.
TSU Organization Department deputy director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) said Alex Tsai must be recalled, as he has supported many government policies that may be harmful to Taiwan and has a very bad attendance record at the legislature.
The campaigners received a great deal of positive response from the public as they paraded through the markets. Many of those who signed the petition said that they do not like Alex Tsai because he is “too cocky” and has not done much for the people.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai