The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday rejected an appeal by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to block a recall vote against him.
It was the third time Han challenged the Central Election Commission’s plan to hold the vote on June 6. Han can still appeal yesterday’s decision.
The commission on Jan. 20 announced that a petition had garnered enough signatures to launch the recall process.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
On April 8, Han’s lawyers filed a challenge with the court seeking to suspend the commission’s right to proceed with the vote. The court on April 17 ruled against Han.
Han’s lawyers then filed an appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court, which on May 7 also ruled against Han.
Han’s lawyers on Monday last week filed another challenge with the Taipei High Administrative Court seeking to prevent the commission from holding the vote, resulting in yesterday’s decision.
The court rejected Han’s argument that the recall vote would damage his reputation and infringe on his right as an elected official to conduct his duties, saying that such consequences would depend on the poll’s outcome.
The court also rejected Han’s argument that holding the vote would increase the burden on Kaohsiung City Government employees and delay the city government’s planned work programs, saying that neither is a provision under election law to suspend the poll.
Kaohsiung Information Bureau Director-General Cheng Chao-hsin (鄭照新) said that Han and his team would consult with lawyers for legal advice.
Separately yesterday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus held a news conference to accuse the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of aiding efforts to recall Han.
The caucus cited Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp introducing discounted tickets for university students from Wednesday next week to June 9 and National Defense University announcing that it was delaying its entrance exam — originally scheduled for June 6 and 7 — due to the recall vote.
KMT caucus secretary-general Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) accused the Ministry of National Defense of placing politics over the rights of students.
DPP spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said it was regrettable that the KMT caucus held the news conference, as doing so was aimed at deterring Kaohsiung residents from exercising their rights.
In related news, Han has canceled a planned visit to Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島).
Han was invited by KMT Legislator Chen Yu-chen (陳玉珍) to join members of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee for an “inspection tour” on Thursday next week.
Chen said that the visit was part of the committee’s mandate to oversee the operations of the Ocean Affairs Council and the Coast Guard Administration, and was unrelated to politics.
However, some lawmakers and pundits said that it was an effort to burnish Han’s image, as Chen and KMT officials want to boost his reputation as a patriot and defender of the nation’s territory in the South China Sea as the mayor fights for political survival.
Additional reporting by CNA
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS