The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday approved recall vote proposals against five more Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, bringing the total number of recall elections to 31.
Voting on the five lawmakers — Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), Yan Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) — is scheduled for Aug. 23, the CEC said.
Per the Civil Servants’ Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a recall campaign is valid if the number of yes votes exceeds the number of opposing votes, and if the supporting votes surpass one-quarter of the total eligible voters in the legislator’s electoral district.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
This is the second wave of recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers approved by the commission.
The first wave of recall campaigns targets 26 KMT legislators, including caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), 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).
The recall vote for these 24 legislators is scheduled for Saturday.
Meanwhile, voting about Nantou County KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and Yu Hao (游顥) is to take place on Aug. 23, alongside the recall elections on five other KMT lawmakers.
The average cost to process a single legislator recall case ranges between NT$16 million and NT$20 million (US$544,107 to US$680,133), and the total cost for holding 31 recall elections would amount to NT$620 million, the CEC said.
The government would also incur costs of NT$1.1 billion for a referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, meaning the total cost for the upcoming polls, including the recall votes and the referendum, would amount to NT$1.7 billion, it said.
The referendum is to be held on Aug. 23 alongside the recall votes.
Additional reporting by CNA
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS