A petition to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has collected enough signatures to pass the threshold for the first step of the recall process, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Friday.
A total of 28,560 signatures were verified as valid for the petition, exceeding the required minimum of 22,814, the CEC said.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the first step in the three-step recall process is to raise a proposal containing the signatures of 1 percent of the constituency’s eligible voters.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
In the case of Kaohsiung, with an estimated 2.28 million eligible voters, this works out to be 22,800 or more signatures.
In the second phase, the initiators of the petition — which was submitted one year after Han’s inauguration on Dec. 25, 2018, as required by law — have 60 days to collect the signatures of 10 percent of the city’s eligible voters, or about 230,000, the CEC said.
Under the act, the previously collected signatures would not be considered valid for this step.
For the recall to pass the third phase, a simple majority must vote in favor of a recall, with at least 25 percent of eligible voters participating, about 570,000 people in the case of Kaohsiung, the CEC said.
Through the Kaohsiung City Government Information Bureau, Han said that he would “respect the decision of the people,” adding that his priority is to spare no effort in managing city affairs.
WeCare Kaohsiung founder Aaron Yin (尹立) urged city officials not to interfere with the Kaohsiung City Election Commission’s processing of the petition.
Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文), who is also chairman of the city’s election commission, said that the act has no such requirement, but promised that the petition would be handled fairly and justly.
As Han declared his candidacy in the presidential race just three months after beginning his term as mayor, WeCare has accused Han of abandoning Kaohsiung.
Han has said that he was urged to run by KMT officials.
He began taking time off to campaign for the presidency in October last year, two months short of serving one full year as mayor.
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
RSS