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, 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, former member 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
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
RSS