A group of activist organizations yesterday established a “Headquarters for Voting Out Candidates” (落選總部) in New Taipei City, announcing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidates Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井), Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) and Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) as their primary targets.
The headquarters — on Jingping Road in the city’s Jhonghe District (中和) — was jointly founded by four activist groups, including The People Rule, the Taiwan March, the Appendectomy Project and the Congressional Investigation Corps.
“Last year’s Appendectomy Project recall campaign, which was aimed at ousting unqualified legislators, successfully prompted the second recall referendum in the nation’s history,” Appendectomy Project spokesperson Lin Zu-yi (林祖儀) said at the headquarters’ launch ceremony.
Photo: Chang An-chiao, Taipei Times
Lin was referring to a landmark recall referendum launched in February last year against KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), which failed to attain the required 50 percent voter turnout.
Lin said that while the campaign yielded only limited results due to the strict regulations set out in the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), they stepped up their efforts and launched the “Voting Out Candidates Movement” last month to make voters aware of the reprehensible conduct by some legislative candidates in the Jan. 16 elections.
The movement targets Liao, Chang and Wu — all of whom are seeking re-election in the January race — because they were chosen as the three worst incumbent lawmakers in various surveys conducted by non-governmental organizations, Lin said.
They have adopted measures such as having hundreds of volunteers on weekends distribute flyers detailing why the trio deserve to be voted out in their respective constituencies, Lin added.
According to the movement’s Web site, Liao is most notorious for his proposal to raise the already high thresholds for recalls, as well as his conduct in May last year when he threatened to delay the legislative review of the Judicial Yuan’s budget proposals if it did not expedite the trial against Taipei MRT killer Cheng Chieh (鄭捷).
According to the site, Chang should be voted out of the legislature over his move to rush the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement through a legislative committee review in March last year, and his stance against lowering the recall thresholds and the suspension of construction of the nation’s controversial fourth nuclear reactor.
The site said Wu’s censurable conduct includes his support for media monopolization and imports of US beef, as well as his obstructions of proposed amendments to the Referendum Act and the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
Taiwan March Foundation head Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏) said in addition to the movement they have also demanded that legislative candidates sign an affidavit pledging to push for reforms to the Referendum Act and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant