Taiwanese students, businesspeople and those residing overseas should participate in the recall votes, YouTube streamer Pa Chiung (八炯) told a rally in Taipei yesterday.
Pa Chiung said he had just returned from the US and Canada, where he urged overseas Taiwanese to fly back to vote on July 26 or Aug. 23.
Two weeks earlier, he had read that the Chinese Communist Party intended to facilitate travel for Taiwanese businesspeople to vote in the recalls.
Photo: CNA
The number of businesspeople who have been incentivized to vote has undoubtedly increased, Pa Chiung said, adding that he launched his North America tour in hopes of persuading Taiwanese there to vote.
His events in the two nations typically drew individual audiences of 100 to 200 people, with one attended by 400, he said.
Most of the people he spoke to wanted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) recalled, while KMT Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) was second, he said.
Photo: CNA
Pa Chiung said he was confident that if those people returned to Taiwan and voted, the recalls against Hsu and Lo would succeed.
Yeh Chun-lien (葉春蓮), a retired teacher from Hualien County, told the rally in Taipei that the recall of all 31 KMT lawmakers facing a vote, with a special focus on KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), was the goal.
A sweep of the recall votes would prevent Taiwanese politics from sliding into complete chaos, Yeh added.
YouTuber Pa Chiung speaks at a recall campaign event in Taipei yesterday.
At a separate rally backing a “No” vote in the attempt to recall KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇), KMT deputy chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) said that President William Lai (賴清德) is seeking total control through the elimination of opposition.
“Taiwan should not condone Lai’s efforts to be a despot,” Lien said.
At a separate “No” rally, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) spoke alongside five KMT legislators facing votes.
“Opposing the recalls is supporting Taiwanese democracy,” Chiang said.
In Taichung, recall campaigners participating in a journey throughout Taiwan hosted an event at Shuian Temple (水安宮) in Nantun District (南屯), while the KMT held a rally at which Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) spoke.
Separately, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said that all promotional material, regardless of whether it supports or opposes recalls, must bear information identifying the person or political party who created it.
People who produce and distribute recall campaign material and are not one of the elected officials facing a vote or the head of a recall campaign must include their address on the material, the CEC said, citing the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Those who contravene the rules face a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,424 to US$34,241), it said.
Additional reporting by Huang Hsu-lei and CNA
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