Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) yesterday completed a 10-day walk with a night concert featuring artists known for their political advocacy ahead of a recall vote today.
Chen represents Taichung’s second electoral district, which encompasses Dadu (大肚), Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wufong (霧峰) and Wurih (烏日) districts, after last year defeating his predecessor, Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恒) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), scion of a wealthy political family.
“I have only been in this job for one year and nine months, but now am being subjected to public scrutiny,” Chen said, adding that he was physically exhausted after covering close to 200km on the walk. “It is my hope that voters give me more time to serve them and to complete the plans I had envisioned for the people.”
Photo: CNA
Chen and supporters completed the march and wrapped up the evening with a concert near the city’s High-Speed Rail station.
The concert, themed “Taiwan’s democracy transition,” featured videos of people protesting during the Martial Law era and political figures demanding freedom and democracy. Speakers touted Taiwan’s democratic systems and vowed not to forget the past KMT regime’s oppression and autocratic rule.
The concert was organized by the Taiwanese Cultural Association, the Taiwan Youth Foundation and the Laiho Cultural Foundation, and was approved after organizers pledged disease prevention measures amid the level 2 alert for COVID-19.
Separately, former KMT chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and other KMT politicians attended a rally at a plaza in Longjing, urging people vote to recall Chen.
Earlier in the day, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) accompanied the recall Chen campaign in Wufong, calling on residents to support the recall vote, citing Chen’s support of a government policy to allow imports of US pork with residual ractopamine.
Chen should have stood with the people and voiced their disagreement to the policy, yet he is focused only on the differences in ideologies of the camps on either side of the independence debate, Chu said.
The issue of US pork allows people to see the moral fiber of the people’s representatives, and the public has made its voice known that our posterity should be protected from potential harm that residual ractopamine can generate, Chu said.
The recall vote is one in which the people can make their voice heard, and the KMT, a democratic party, stands and supports the opinions of local people, he said.
Additional reporting by Ho Tsung-han and Chang Hsuan-che
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