A petition to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is expected to clear an initial threshold for getting the proposal on a ballot as the number of signatures collected nears 30,000, organizers said yesterday.
If the petition succeeds, it would be the first time a mayor is recalled in Taiwan, said the group Citizen Mowing Action, which organized the petition with We Care Kaohsiung and other groups.
“Recalling Han is difficult, but it is the right thing to do,” said a Citizen Mowing Action spokesman surnamed Lee (李).
Photo: CNA
The campaign is not funded by any political parties or corporations, so group members have to pay for expenses out of their own pockets, Lee said.
Citizen Mowing Action and We Care Kaohsiung on Thursday last week began distributing and collecting petition forms to recall Han, who is contesting the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary.
The purpose of the petition is to punish Han for giving little thought and effort to running Kaohsiung and to stop opportunists from blurring the nation’s sovereignty and manipulating cross-strait relations, We Care Kaohsiung said on Facebook on Saturday.
In addition to sending signed petition forms to the groups, people can also mail them to the offices of the Taiwan Radical Wings or the Democratic Progressive Party’s Kaohsiung city councilors, the organizers said.
Taiwan Radical Wings spokesman Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) said that it would organize a march in Kaohsiung to urge people to recall Han on July 14, after the KMT has conducted a poll to determine its candidate for next year’s presidential election.
“If you love Kaohsiung, you should love it your entire life. You cannot look down on the city, then pursue it, but finally abandon it,” he said.
The march is inevitable, as Han has broken his promise to be mayor, he said.
Asked why Taiwan Radical Wings chose to hold the march on the day before the KMT unveils the result of its primary poll, Chen said that the party cares more about the interests of the public than its own development.
Recalling Han is expected to be a lengthy battle and the key challenge is passing a second-stage threshold for initiating a recall election, he said.
When asked about the petition yesterday, Han told reporters in Kaohsiung that the city government must be responsible and quickly complete its tasks.
“As for other issues, such as political manipulations and people’s political opinions, it is a democratic society and I respect them,” he said.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), to launch an election to recall the mayor, 1 percent of the electorate, or 22,814 residents in Kaohsiung, must sign a first-phase recall petition; and 10 percent of the local electorate, or 228,134 residents, must sign a second-phase petition.
To recall the mayor, 25 percent of Kaohsiung’s electorate must vote in favor of recalling him, with the number of “yes” votes exceeding the “no” votes.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS