A campaign to unseat New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) because of his vocal support for marriage equality has collected enough signatures to submit a recall petition, while the New Taipei City legislator reaffirmed his stance on gay marriage.
An alliance founded by New Taipei City residents opposed to gay marriage organized a signature drive in Sijhih (汐止) on Saturday and announced that it collected 3,124 valid signatures, exceeding the amount required to file a petition for a recall vote.
At least 2,511 signatures are needed to submit a recall petition and 25,119 signatures to launch a recall vote in Huang’s constituency, New Taipei City’s 12th electoral district covering Jinshan (金山), Wanli (萬里), Sijhih and other districts.
Photo: CNA
Alliance director Sun Chi-cheng (孫繼正) said they would submit the recall petition and signatures on Feb. 1 — the anniversary of Huang’s inauguration — to the Central Election Commission to proceed to the next step of the recall procedure.
Sun criticized Huang for “cheating the voters by campaigning for gay marriage without trying to honor his election promises.”
“Sexual education materials are rampant on campuses, so is sexuality,” Sun said.
Sun said Huang snubbed the opponents of proposed same-sex marriage legislation who petitioned Huang’s office against it last month, while Huang exposed the personal information of petitioners, causing them to become the target of Internet harassment.
Supporters of the campaign also cited Huang’s “substandard” performance in terms of local services, saying that he was hardly seen organizing any local events.
It was the first attempt to recall an elected official following an amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), which was approved on Nov. 29 and lowered the threshold for submitting a recall petition from collecting the signatures of 2 percent of all registered voters of a constituency to 1 percent, while reducing the required number of signatures supporting a recall petition from 13 percent to 10 percent of voters in a constituency.
“I support the public’s right to practice democracy, but the recall campaign will not change my stance on marriage equality,” Huang said yesterday.
He said he should be judged in terms of his legislative performance, adding that all his work is open to public inspection.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
CHANGES: While NCCU opened the nation’s first co-ed dorm in Mucha, a recent survey showed that Taiwanese are in favor of abolishing gender segregation at high schools National Chengchi University (NCCU) has opened a co-ed dormitory, a first in Taiwan among state-funded Taiwan universities. The 22 duplexes are at the renovated “Huanan New Village,” in Taipei City’s Mucha (木柵) area, near the NCCU campus, a school official said yesterday. Twenty-two out of 37 group applications were selected in a lottery draw to select who would be chosen to live in the units, which can either be shared by up to eight students if the unit has four bedrooms, or up to 10 students if it is a five-bedroom unit, officials said. Completed in 1964 for campus staff housing,
RSS