The “Wecare Kaohsiung” coalition of civic groups behind the recall campaign against Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is capping off their effort with three rallies in the city ahead of the recall vote on Saturday next week, starting with one last night in Cishan District (旗山).
The second rally is to be held in Gangshan District (岡山) on Saturday night and the third in Fongshan District (鳳山) the following night, the coalition said.
Wecare Kaohsiung members yesterday distributed yellow ribbons printed with “June 6, Free Kaohsiung. 2020, Kaohsiung people will make history” and “We care. We vote. June 6, God Bless Taiwan” at major intersections in the city.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
Taiwan Statebuilding Party members in Hsinchu and other cities also handed out ribbons and encouraged Kaohsiung residents to return home to vote
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung prosecutors on Friday said they would deploy prosecutors at all local police precincts on voting day to assist investigations into allegations of interference or other illegal efforts to hinder voting.
The announcement came after recall campaign initiator Chen Kuan-jung (陳冠榮), a lawyer, visited the Kaohsiung Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office to request prosecutors oversee the whole process from the casting of ballots to the final tallying.
Also on Friday, former Han presidential campaign spokeswoman Anne Wang (王淺秋), a close aide of the mayor, created a furor when she said in a radio interview that Kaohsiung residents were easy to rile up.
Referring to the recall campaign, Wang said: “We feel that Kaohsiung is so different from Taipei ... that we see many trivial matters being distorted and blown up to become big issues. I have seen that Kaohsiung residents’ mentality and emotional make-up are totally different from those in Taipei; that in Kaohsiung, they are more easily incited.”
Chang Po-yang (張博洋), a representative of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and a Kaohsiung resident, responded by saying that “the recall vote is due to Kaohsiung residents being fed up and angry at Han’s leaving them to run for the presidency and his incompetence in city governance.”
“We see Wang not addressing Han’s problems and his complete lack of ability as a mayor. Instead she looks down on Kaohsiung residents, saying that it is us who had wronged Han, rather than the other way around,” he said.
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