Recall votes are to take place today, with nearly 6.79 million voters across nine counties and cities eligible to vote to determine whether 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators retain or lose their positions, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said.
Hsinchu City residents are also voting today to decide if their suspended mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) would be recalled.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in early January called for mass recalls to oust KMT lawmakers, and civic groups have since launched mass recall votes targeting 31 KMT lawmakers, who they accuse of being pro-China and threats to national security.
Photo: CNA
Another seven would face recall votes on Aug. 23.
If the recall votes succeed, the officials would have to step down from their positions on Friday next week, and would no longer receive salaries and subsidies related to their office, the CEC said yesterday.
The recalled legislators would also no longer be able to run for the same office for four years, it added.
Photo: CNA
Should the recall vote fail to reach the threshold, those officials cannot be the target of another recall for the duration of their term, it said.
Recall votes would be considered successful if the “yes” votes are more than the number of “no” votes, and exceed one-quarter of the eligible voters in the constituency of the target legislator.
As voter turnout is critical, recall groups have been standing outside subway stations, in public parks and at food markets for weeks, urging people to vote “yes.”
Thousands of people also gathered on Thursday night and last night in Taipei in a show of support for the recalls.
Meanwhile, KMT legislators have taken to the streets to persuade voters to oppose the recall, with the party sending out some of its best-known politicians to call for “no” votes.
The KMT also held a mass rally on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei last night.
Public opinion on the recalls is divided.
Aaron Yu, 32, said he supported the campaign, because “most of the bills passed by KMT lawmakers are pro-China.”
However, restaurant worker Sharon Chen, 65, criticized it as a waste of money, saying voters had already made their decisions in last year’s elections.
In a bid to prevent external forces from affecting the recall vote today, the Coast Guard Administration’s northern branch yesterday dispatched more than 150 personnel to sweep beaches and inspect port security across Yilan and Hsinchu counties, and New Taipei, Keelung and Taoyuan cities.
The sweeps targeted locations where suspicious people might hide, such as abandoned houses, sewers and windbreak belts, the branch office said.
It also said that it is utilizing its radar systems to scan littoral and coastal areas for suspicious ships, with coast guard ships placed on heightened alert to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from using “gray zone” tactics or other methods to influence the vote.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-tung, AP and AFP
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