Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold.
Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang.
Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the weekend, collecting 27,337 signatures.
Photo: Chen Chien-chih, Taipei Times
They would continue to collect signatures to be safe, as some signatures could be invalidated and removed due to errors or incorrect information, said the group’s spokeswoman, identified only as Hsuan (萱).
Campaigners in recalls against KMT legislators Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔) and Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪) said they had already reached the 10 percent requirement, gathering 32,921 and 36,323 signatures respectively.
Campaigners in Hualien County yesterday said they had reached 32,766 signatures over the weekend in their drive to recall KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi, surpassing the required 19,377.
In Hsinchu City, campaigners against KMT lawmaker Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐) and suspended Taiwan People’s Party Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) said they had reached the threshold and delivered their petitions to the Hsinchu City Election Commission.
The group said they needed nearly 35,000 signatures, but they were able to collect 53,131 signatures against Cheng and 51,419 signatures against Kao.
Recall campaigners in Taoyuan said they have reached the threshold for all six KMT legislators in the city, namely Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭), Tu Chuan-chi (涂權吉), Lu Ming-che (魯明哲), Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲), Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) and Chiu Jo-hua (邱若華).
Groups pushing for the recall of five KMT lawmakers in Taipei — Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯), Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) and Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) — said they have also reached required number of signatures.
Additional reporting by CNA
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by