The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced yesterday that a recall vote would take place on July 26, after it approved the first batch of recall motions targeting 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安).
Taiwan is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of mass recall campaigns, following a civil society push that echoed a call made by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in January to initiate signature drives aimed at unseating KMT legislators.
Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Taiwanese can initiate a recall of district-elected lawmakers by collecting signatures from local residents and submitting them to the commission.
Photo: Lee Wen-hsin, Taipei Times
A recall petition requires a sufficient number of valid signatures — at least 1 percent of eligible voters in the first round and 10 percent in the second — for the elected official to face a public recall vote, the commission said.
Per the act, the legislators facing recall have until June 30 to submit their written defense to the commission.
The 24 KMT lawmakers named in the recall motions announced yesterday are: Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), Huang Chien-pin (黃建賓), Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), Lee Yan-hisu (李彥秀), Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷), Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之), Chang Chih-lun (張智倫), Lin Te-fu (林德福), Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔), Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔), Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭), Tu Chuan-chi (涂權吉), Lu Ming-che (魯明哲), Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲), Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲), Chiu Juo-hua (邱若華), Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪), Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋), Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), Ting Hsueh-chung (丁學忠) and Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥).
Per the act, a recall vote is considered valid only if the number of votes in favor of the recall exceeds the number of opposing votes, and if those supporting votes amount to at least one-quarter of the eligible voters in the legislator’s electoral district.
The total number of eligible voters in each district would be announced by July 22, the commission said.
In addition to the approved motions, several other recall efforts are still under review by the commission’s local offices, which include campaigns against Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), although each petition currently lacks the required number of signatures — falling short by 564, 2,267, 3,464, 2,456 and 1,938 signatures respectively.
Recall campaigns against Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and You Hao (游顥), both representing Nantou County, have already submitted the necessary signatures to the commission’s Nantou branch, which is now reviewing them.
Kao of the Taiwan People’s Party is also facing a recall vote. She was suspended following a conviction for corruption in July last year.
Additional reporting by CNA
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