Nearly 60 percent of Kaohsiung residents disapprove of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) decision to run for president and more than half support holding a vote to recall him, a poll released yesterday by the Green Party Taiwan found.
The poll, for which 1,009 residents aged 20 and older were interviewed on Sunday, found that 58.4 percent disapprove of Han running for president, compared with 32.5 percent who approve.
Asked about the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate’s performance as mayor, 57.8 percent said that they were unhappy with the results of his policies, while 33.9 expressed approval.
Graphic courtesy of the Green Party Taiwan
Respondents were asked to assign a score to Han, who had a final average of 31 out of 100, with as many as 24.8 percent giving him a score of zero.
Amid a coalition of civic groups collecting signatures for a petition to launch a recall vote against Han, a total of 53.8 percent of respondents said that they support the campaign, while 33 percent opposed it.
Most respondents, 76.5 percent, said that they were aware of a march on Saturday in support of the campaign.
While 27.1 percent said that they planned to attend the recall march, 8.9 percent said that they would join a march organized by Han on the same day to celebrate his first anniversary as mayor.
Asked if they approve of the mayor’s decision to hold a march on the same day, 51.9 percent of respondents expressed disapproval, compared with 33.4 percent who said that they approve.
As more than half of the respondents expressed support for recalling Han, “there is a great chance that Han could become the first mayor of a special municipality to be recalled in [the nation’s] history,” Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) said.
In the worst-case scenario for Han, he would lose both the Jan. 11 presidential election and his position as mayor, Wang said.
Han should carefully consider whether his decision to launch a presidential bid only months after taking office was in line with public expectations, Wang added.
The poll’s findings are “a huge confidence boost” for the groups organizing the recall petition and march, said Aaron Yin (尹立), founder of WeCare Kaohsiung and one of the main organizers of the recall campaign.
It shows that Kaohsiung residents have been unhappy with Han over the past year, he said.
WeCare Kaohsiung and other groups would hold the recall march as planned and continue to push for a recall vote, he added.
The poll has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3.09 percentage points. The results were weighted to fit the population profile.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and