A campaign for a recall election aimed at New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) because of his support for legalizing same-sex marriage has reached the required 10 percent signature threshold, but is pending final verification, the New Taipei City Election Commission said yesterday.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) is scheduled to hold a meeting later this month to rule on the validity of the recall campaign, which was initiated in May by the Greater Taipei Stability Power Alliance — a group opposed to gay marriage — Central Election Commission deputy director Huang Yao-chang (黃堯章) said.
“Once the campaign is deemed valid, a recall election is to be held between 20 and 60 days after the announcement, on a date determined by the CEC,” Huang Yao-chang said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The New Taipei City Election Commission made the remarks after ruling that 26,745 valid signatures were submitted, more than the required 25,120 signatures.
The campaign initiator had to submit an additional 2,233 signatures by Oct. 6, after only 24,827 of the 29,714 signatures initially submitted in August were deemed valid.
In its second signature tender, 1,918 were ruled admissible.
Based on the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the recall election — the last of three phases — needs the consent of at least 25 percent of the total eligible voters in a public post holder’s electoral district to be considered successful.
Huang Kuo-chang was last year elected by the 12th electoral district of New Taipei City — which has 251,191 eligible voters — so the campaign initiator requires 62,798 “yes” votes to remove the NPP lawmaker from his post.
Huang Kuo-chang could become the first popularly elected official to be ousted after the nation’s recall thresholds were dropped with the passage of an amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act in November last year.
Huang Kuo-chang was one of the main proponents of the amendment, which he believed would return power to the people.
Under the amended act, the threshold for recall petitions was lowered from 2 percent of voters within an elected official’s constituency to 1 percent, with the number of signatures required for the proposal lowered from 13 percent to 10 percent.
It also cut the required number of votes supporting the recall from 50 percent to 40 percent of the original voting population of the constituency, while removing the 50 percent turnout threshold.
Huang Kuo-chang yesterday said that he was too preoccupied with his work to worry about the recall campaign.
“Whatever happens, I will continue to insist on reforms and strive for professional statesmanship. These beliefs and actions will not cease,” he said.
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