A recall campaign against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) yesterday entered its second phase, during which the Constitution 133 Alliance would need to collect about 40,000 signatures from residents of New Taipei City’s (新北市) six districts for the recall proposal to pass.
“[Collecting signatures] will be difficult, and we have to deal with the questionable administrative procedure of the Central Election Commission, but we will fight to the very end,” award-winning writer Neil Peng (馮光遠), one of the campaign’s primary organizers, said in front of the commission’s headquarters, where he obtained a copy of the petition letter for the second phase.
The alliance submitted 6,000 signatures, representing 2 percent of the electorate, on Nov. 4 and another 1,400, required by the commission, on Dec. 2, Peng said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, the commission appeared to have adopted a stalling strategy, taking the maximum of 25 days to review the first batch of signatures and another 25 days for the second batch, he added.
“We suspect that it was a strategy to drag the second phase into the Lunar New Year break, which would make it more difficult for the alliance to collect signatures,” Peng said.
The 30-day second phase was reported to begin today and conclude on Feb. 1, the third day of the six-day Lunar New Year break.
Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正), former executive director of the Judicial Reform Foundation, said the alliance would mobilize all the volunteers it can to scour the constituency’s six districts — Sanjhih (三芝), Shihmen (石門), Tamsui (淡水), Bali (八里), Linkou (林口) and Taishan (泰山) — to collect signatures from the required 13 percent of the electorate.
The alliance initiated the campaign to recall the lawmaker, who it said was committed to partisan voting and ignored public opinion in the legislature.
The campaign was nicknamed the “BMW Movement,” short for bamian Wu (罷免吳) — meaning “recall Wu” in Chinese.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
RSS