Campaigners from across Taiwan are to submit recall proposals against 12 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers from Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu County and Taichung to the Central Election Commission (CEC) this afternoon, bringing the total number of recall petitions filed against KMT legislators to 32.
United Microelectronics Corp founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠), who also serves as spokesman for the Safeguard Taiwan, Anti-Communist Volunteers Alliance, is to lead various campaign groups to the commission in Taipei to submit a second batch of petitions, after 19 petitions against KMT lawmakers were submitted on Monday last week.
The KMT and its Youth League have responded by submitting recall petitions of their own against 13 Democratic Progressive Party legislators.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Of the 39 constituencies represented by KMT lawmakers, including those from three indigenous constituencies, 31 now face recalls.
Campaigners are still compiling signatures to recall legislators elected in Keelung, Changhua County, Kinmen County and Miaoli County.
This leaves only one elected representative from the KMT not yet targeted for recalls, Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) of Lienchiang County.
The groups are today submitting signatures to recall KMT legislators Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) of Taipei, as well as Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷), Chang Chih-lun (張智倫), Lin Te-fu (林德福), Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔) of New Taipei City.
Proposals are also to be submitted to recall KMT legislators Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) of Hsinchu County, along with Taichung’s Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣).
In Taichung, campaign groups today announced that they had reached the first stage of the process to recall Yang and Chiang.
According to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), signatures must total at least 1 percent of the total voters in the electoral district where the official was elected.
The group seeking to recall Chiang said it was a race against the clock, but in just eight days over the Lunar New Year, between Jan. 27 and Monday last week, campaigners collected more than 3,000 signatures.
Additional reporting by Ou Su-mei
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