A recall campaign would be a better option for people to vent their anger against the government than throwing shoes at the president, an award-winning author said yesterday, on the completion of the first stage of a campaign to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇).
“Throwing shoes is good, but recalling incompetent lawmakers, a mechanism in the democratic system, is a better way to express your anger toward the current administration,” writer Neil Peng (馮光遠), co-founder of the Constitution 133 Alliance, said in front of the Legislative Yuan.
Established in August, the citizens’ alliance cited Article 133 of the Constitution, which states that “a person elected may be recalled by his constituency,” as the foundation of its effort to bring down incompetent lawmakers through a constitutional mechanism, with Wu, a confidant of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), as the first target.
Photo: CNA
The alliance yesterday submitted the more than 6,000 signatures it had collected in Wu’s constituency, New Taipei City’s (新北市) first district, to the Central Election Commission, meeting the minimum threshold required — 2 percent of the total electorate in the district — to complete the first phase of a recall petition.
The alliance aims to meet its next target of garnering support from no less than 13 percent of the electorate — about 290,000 in the district — within the next month before the proposal can be put to a referendum in the constituency.
A rally has been scheduled on Nov. 16 to generate public awareness of the campaign and the petition drive, Peng said.
“This campaign would be a test of solidarity of the Taiwanese public,” said film director Ko I-chen (柯一正), one of the co-founders of the alliance.
The alliance listed nine reasons why they think Wu is incompetent — including his endorsement of Ma’s policies on US beef imports, the electricity and fuel price increases and continued construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City, among others.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to