The Appendectomy Project’s campaign to oust Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) reached a new milestone yesterday, with the inauguration of the nation’s first “Recall Headquarters,” launched in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).
To recall Tsai in the upcoming referendum, which is to take place on Feb. 14, more than half the ballots cast must be in favor of the motion.
A 50 percent turnout is also required for the referendum to be declared as valid.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Instead of performing a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony, the organizers sliced apart a pig’s large intestine with a scalpel — an allusion to the name of the campaign, which was chosen because the Mandarin term for “blue-camp legislator” (藍委) is pronounced in the same way as “appendix” (闌尾).
The event took on a jubilant tone, as guest speakers jeered at what they said were “ridiculous” regulations that bar all campaign activities for recall referendums.
Although legislators recently launched a motion to revise the Election and Recall Act (公務人員選舉罷免法), which in its current form renders all promotional activities for recall referendums illegal, the amendment is not expected to be ratified before the upcoming referendum — meaning that organizers of the campaign could be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million (between US$3,131 and US$31,312).
Legal expert Huang Yueh-hung (黃越宏) jokingly said the project should remind the public that campaigning for the referendum is illegal by using campaign trucks and fliers.
Campaign organizer Tseng Kuang-chih (曾光志) said that like traditional campaign headquarters that elaborate on a candidate’s strengths, the project’s “Recall Headquarters” would serve a similar function, except it would work toward showing how Tsai failed the public.
He added that the project’s priority after the referendum would be to continue to promote recall regulation reform, as the current threshold “seriously infringes on people’s rights to direct participation in public affairs.”
The campaign received the endorsement of 58,989 residents for its petition for a recall referendum in Tsai’s constituency — Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts — paving the way for the first recall vote in the nation since 1994.
The required turnout for a recall was raised from one-third to 50 percent before the 1994 referendum, which ended in failure because of low turnout.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS