Recall petitions targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) were rejected yesterday, lifting the number of failed attempts in a mass recall by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to eight.
The campaign against Rosalia Wu collected 27,290 signatures and delivered them to the Central Election Commission’s (CEC) Taipei office at about 1pm, stand-in campaign organizer Chan Chia-wen (詹嘉文) said.
While the signature count exceeded the requirement, the bid was ultimately rejected by the CEC, as the initiator of the campaign was not present to tender the signatures, Chan said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Chang Ke-chin (張克晉), who initiated the recall bid, on April 30 announced that he was backing out of the campaign. Chan waited outside the CEC office until 5:30pm, hoping that Chang would change his mind, but to no avail.
The campaign would explore and exhaust all alternatives, including petitions or launching an administrative lawsuit, to deliver the motion, Chan said.
Meanwhile, the petition against Wu Pei-yi was delivered to the Taipei office in the afternoon, but was about 3,000 signatures short of the required number, campaign organizer Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) said.
While it fell short, the campaign demonstrated the anger among residents of Wu Pei-yi’s constituency, which covers Taipei’s Zhongzheng (中正) and Wanhua (萬華) districts, Lee added.
Investigations had affected the campaign’s efforts to collect signatures, he said.
Supporters told him that they would vote in a recall election, but would not sign a petition, Lee said.
Prosecutors nationwide over the past weeks have been investigating alleged signature fraud in recall campaigns, resulting in the detention of several KMT officials.
Taipei City Council Speaker Tai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) of the KMT thanked volunteers who stuck with the recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers until the end.
It was an arduous journey to reach the second phase of the recall campaigns, especially with the investigations, Tai said.
In addition to the two Wu bids, recall petitions against DPP legislators Asenay Daliyalrep, Saidhai Tahovecahe, Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Wu Chi-ming (吳琪銘) have failed.
Petitions targeting Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸), Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城), Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇), Lee Chun-hsien (李俊憲), Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Huang Jie (黃捷) have deadlines this month.
Meanwhile, the CEC said it would announce on June 20 the results of reviews of 31 recall petitions against KMT lawmakers to say whether they have met the second-stage signature threshold.
The Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) stipulates that recall campaigns that pass the second stage must be put to a vote 20 to 60 days after substantiation.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang