We Care Kaohsiung, which last year organized a rally drawing 80,000 people, announced on Tuesday evening that it is preparing to launch a petition to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Over the past few months, Han has shown himself to be “uninterested and incompetent in running the city,” the group wrote on Facebook.
“Can we accept having someone like him be the mayor of Kaohsiung? The answer should be a resounding ‘no,’” the group added.
Photo copied by Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
We Care Kaohsiung was last year formed by Kaohsiung residents and civil groups to promote a Nov. 17 rally in the city to oppose smear campaigns and bullying related to the Nov. 24 local elections.
Some people hope to decide whether to recall Han after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, but the mayor should be recalled regardless of the primary results, the group said.
“To recall Han, we must not wait and need not wait,” it said.
Initiating a recall election is a lengthy process and would require the support of at least 600,000 people, the group said.
To ensure that Han is recalled, the group has held multiple discussions, and consulted many experts and veterans of recall and referendum campaigns, it said.
The recall campaign would be carefully planned, the group said, urging people to support its cause.
To launch an election to recall a mayor, 1 percent of the electorate in Kaohsiung, or 22,814 residents, must sign a first-phase recall petition, according to the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Following that, 10 percent of the local electorate, or 228,134 residents, must sign a second-phase petition in 60 days.
To recall the mayor, 25 percent of Kaohsiung’s electorate must vote in favor of recalling him, with the number of “yes” votes exceeding the “no” votes.
Considering that Han was elected mayor with nearly 890,000 votes, We Care Kaohsiung estimated that at least 600,000 “yes” votes would be needed in the recall election.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow