The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday approved a motion to launch a recall of New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
The motion was launched on May 19 by Greater Taipei Stability Power Alliance chairman Sun Chi-cheng (孫繼正), who must obtain the official signature billet from the commission before Friday or his request would be considered aborted.
Sun said that as a legislator, Huang was not invested with the authority to support legal marriage for same-sex couples and that he was a disruptive force in society with his support of the new labor rules and the service trade agreement.
Based on the population of Huang’s constituency, by law Sun needed 2,512 signatures to support his motion. He submitted 2,984 signatures and the commission ruled that 2,637 were valid.
Sun must file a petition within 60 days of receiving the official format for the second-stage signature drive, the commission said.
The petition must be signed by one-10th of the electoral district’s total population, or 25,120 voters, for a successful recall motion, it said.
Huang said that same-sex marriage has been supported by the Council of Grand Justices as a part of human rights as guaranteed under the Constitution, and he would not waver in his support of such rights.
Huang said he respected difference of opinions, but called on Sun and his supporters to refrain from spreading misinformation and discriminatory lies.
The grand justices on May 25 said the Civil Code’s restriction of marriage to a man and a woman “violated” guarantees of freedom of marriage and equality.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
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