Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) yesterday survived a recall election in Taipei’s fifth electoral district after the tally of votes in favor of the recall fell short of the required threshold.
With 235,024 people eligible to vote yesterday, Lim would have been ousted if one-quarter of them, or 58,756, had backed the recall motion and if more voters were in favor of the recall than against it.
In the end, 54,813 voters supported the recall initiative, or about 56 percent, while 43,340 opposed it, according to unofficial Taipei City Election Commission figures for all 218 polling stations.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Voter turnout was 41.93 percent, not high enough to reach the number of votes needed to oust Lim from the Legislative Yuan.
The push for a recall followed a local COVID-19 outbreak that began in May, with Wanhua District (萬華), which Lim represents, at the center of the surge.
Lim was criticized for siding with the central government rather than his constituents when an official tried to absolve the central health authorities of responsibility for the outbreak by saying that it originated in Wanhua (萬華).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Lim also took heat for appearing with central government officials at a Huannan Market (環南市場) news conference after an outbreak there and was accused of showing little concern for the market except at election time or for a photo op.
Lim, 45, was re-elected as an independent to a second legislative term in 2020 with 81,853 votes and a margin of victory of 3 percentage points.
As a New Power Party candidate in 2016, he won his first term as legislator with 82,650 votes and a margin of victory of 4 percentage points.
Before becoming a politician, he gained fame as the lead vocalist of the metal band Chthonic and was known as an advocate for Taiwanese independence.
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
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS