Legislative by-elections for seats vacated in Taipei and Taichung are to be held on Jan. 26, the Central Election Commission said on Friday.
One election is to be held for the seat representing Taipei’s second electoral district after former legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) on Nov. 18 gave up his seat to run for Taipei mayor.
Yao finished third in the race, which was part of the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.
The other election is to fill the seat representing Taichung’s fifth electoral district vacated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung mayor-elect Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who resigned as a legislator on Nov. 20, before being elected as mayor.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a by-election has to be held within three months of a legislative seat being vacated when more than one year remains to be served.
The next legislative elections are to be held in January 2020 alongside the presidential election.
Those seeking to run in the by-elections need to register their candidacies from Dec. 10 to 14, the commission said.
The commission did not announce when the elections to fill three other seats that were vacated in Changhua and Kinmen counties, and Tainan are to be held.
The three legislators won the county chief and mayoral races in those areas, but they have yet to quit their legislative posts and do not officially take on their new roles until Dec. 25.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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