Three prominent Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers representing Taipei districts and two representing districts in New Taipei City are facing recalls, after campaigners yesterday turned in the second round of petitions to the Central Election Commission (CEC).
KMT legislators Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) and Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) exhorted voters to vote “no” in the upcoming recall vote, while KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (許巧芯) said that she was confident she could weather the vote.
The groups heading the recall campaigns delivered the second round of signatures to the CEC’s Taipei branch office.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
United Microelectronics Corp founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠) said that the KMT legislators were misguided, illogical, and attempting to work with the enemy to overthrow the state and destroy the Republic of China.
All five recall petitions received more signatures than the legal threshold, with the recall against Hsu receiving 41,874 signatures (178 percent), that against Wang receiving 47,554 signatures (171 percent) and the recall against Lai receiving 34,040 signatures (137 percent).
Wang said she would do everything to gather support, while Hsu said that she was confident she would weather the recall as “the voters have eyes.”
Lai said he remained calm and urged his supporters to vote against the recall.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the KMT said he would take a stand with the democratically elected legislators in a show of support and urged voters to vote against the recalls.
Recall petition groups in New Taipei City also delivered signatures supporting recalls against KMT legislators Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) and Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔) to the CEC’s New Taipei City office.
Fang Po-hsiang (方柏翔), who headed the recall petition against Hung, said the petition garnered 54,888 signatures, exceeding the legal threshold of 38,763 (142 percent).
Chen Cheng-ching (陳正敬), who is leading the recall against Liao, said they received 36,744 signatures (141 percent).
“These signatures represent the love the people have for their homes, and a declaration of war against pan-Chinese Communist Party legislators,” Chen said.
Hung said that he helped give voice to his electorate and represented voters’ oversight of the government and it was what the people wanted, adding that the recall was not a standard democratic procedure and urged his supporters to vote against it.
Liao said in a prerecorded video that the Democratic Progressive Party is reinstating a dictatorship, urging the public to consider how the Weimar Republic became fascist and pro-Nazi before World War II.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) voiced his support for the two KMT legislators and said that Taiwan must stand united against external challenges, expressing disapproval of the political conflict that has resulted in an increasingly polarized public.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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