Kaohsiung City Councilor Yang Ming-jou (楊明州) yesterday took the helm as Kaohsiung acting mayor, stepping into the vacancy left by the recall of former mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Yang, who was appointed by the Executive Yuan on Friday after the Central Election Commission officially confirmed Han’s recall, took the oath of office with Cabinet Secretary-General Li Meng-yen (李孟諺) acting as witness.
Yang, who served as deputy mayor under former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), is to remain in the post until the city chooses a new mayor in an Aug. 15 by-election.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
The 64-year-old Yang has been working for the Kaohsiung City Government since 1984. After Han became mayor in December 2018, he appointed Yang to be the city’s secretary-general. Yang served in the post for eight months before being reassigned as a councilor.
Although he would fill the mayoral post for only about two months, Yang said that he would do his best, adding that he would coordinate with colleagues to mitigate flood damage in the upcoming typhoon season.
His administration would continue to carry out public work projects in the city, as any delay to infrastructure improvements just because of a reshuffle in the city government would be unacceptable, Yang added.
Han, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), became the first mayor in Taiwan to be recalled.
On June 6, 939,090 Kaohsiung voters cast their ballots in favor of his removal — a much higher total than the 574,996 required, the legal threshold representing 25 percent of Kaohsiung’s eligible voters.
Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) has emerged as has emerged as the DPP’s favored candidate for the by-election.
The Taiwan People’s Party is reportedly considering some form of cooperation with the KMT in the by-election, although it said that it remains open to other options.
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