The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and the Appendectomy Project yesterday co-organized parades in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) to collect more signatures for the petition to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), as it is likely to become the first recall petition in history to make it to polling stations.
Holding placards, flags, as well as chanting slogans, dozens of TSU members and Appendectomy Project volunteers assembled outside an elementary school in Neihu before breaking into different groups to simultaneously parade through five traditional open-air markets in the area to campaign for the recall and collect signatures.
“It is true that we have collected a little over the 40,000 signatures required to pass the second-phase of the recall process, but we must collect at least 5,000 more to make sure that we can pass the threshold for the second phase,” said Tseng Chih-kuang (曾志光), an Appendectomy Project volunteer, to passers-by at the assembly point.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“Based on our experience, the Central Election Commission (CEC) will look at each recall petition closely, and they disqualify, on average, 8 percent of petition forms. Therefore we must have as many signatures as possible to make sure that the number of signed petitions will be over the threshold even after the commission disqualifies some,” Tseng added.
According to the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法), a recall petition must be endorsed by at least two percent of eligible voters in the electoral district.
After the petition passes the CEC review, the petition must be endorsed by at least 13 percent of the eligible voters who did not sign the petition in the initial phase to make it to polling stations.
Appendectomy Project volunteer Tsai Wang-lin (蔡旺霖) said that from Nov. 16 to Nov. 29, only a little more than 4,000 people signed the second-phase petition, leaving them worried.
“However, the number of second-phase endorsers grew suddenly to more than 40,000 on Nov. 29, election day, as we set up petition stations outside polling stations,” he said.
TSU Organization Department deputy director Chang Chao-lin (張兆林) said Alex Tsai must be recalled, as he has supported many government policies that may be harmful to Taiwan and has a very bad attendance record at the legislature.
The campaigners received a great deal of positive response from the public as they paraded through the markets. Many of those who signed the petition said that they do not like Alex Tsai because he is “too cocky” and has not done much for the people.
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