Former Kaohsiung Information Bureau director-general Anne Wang (王淺秋) and lawyer Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元) yesterday filed a request with the Taipei High Administrative Court to halt an expected recall vote of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), claiming that campaigners “jumped the gun” in collecting signatures.
Petitioners on Tuesday passed the second-stage threshold needed for a recall vote after the Kaohsiung City Election Commission finished reviewing more than 400,000 signatures.
The commission confirmed 377,662 signatures to be valid after duplicates and signatures with incomplete information were removed.
Photo: CNA
It was to report the result yesterday to the Central Election Commission, which is expected to hold a meeting to review the case on Friday next week.
A vote must be held 20 to 60 days after a recall case is established.
Wecare Kaohsiung founder Aaron Yin (尹立), who has been leading the campaign to recall the mayor, yesterday said that the filing by Wang, Han’s spokeswoman in last year’s mayoral election, and Yeh was as if Han had lost a game of mahjong and was “flipping the table.”
“This is ridiculous behavior,” Yin said.
The results announced on Tuesday were a review of the second-stage signatures, but Han’s filing addresses the first stage of the process, he said.
Han should have raised his issues then, Yin said, questioning why the mayor had waited until the results were announced to mention them.
“This means that Han Kuo-yu is running out of tactics and can no longer find any reasons to refute the expression of Kaohsiung residents,” he said.
Chang Po-yang (張博洋), deputy director of Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s news department, said that he could not believe that a person who “ran away” was accusing petitioners of collecting signatures too early, referring to Han’s announcement less than a year after assuming office as mayor that he would take a leave of absence to campaign for president.
Han’s announcement that he would file a request to stop a vote fewer than 12 hours after the petition passed its second-stage signature threshold shows that he did not take the recall petition seriously before, and now, the entire Kaohsiung City Government is desperate, Chang said.
More than 370,000 signatures have been approved, but Han is disputing the 20,000 signatures collected during the first phase, he said.
“This is like a child arguing,” he added.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS