Appendectomy Project volunteers last night held a final rally in Taipei to urge people to come out and vote today to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元).
Hundreds of people gathered at Neihu District’s (內湖) Dahu Park (大湖公園), the heart of Tsai’s electoral district, with project volunteers fanning out to hand out pamphlets, buttons and other materials urging residents to vote and observe a “democratic Valentine’s Day.”
Tsai’s name was nowhere to be seen on the election materials, as the volunteers skirted a ban on campaigning in a recall vote.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“Even though we are not allowed to tell people how they should vote, we can still publicize the date and urge residents to vote,” Appendectomy Project founder Ashley Hsu (許瑋珊) said, adding that since the Central Election Commission had ruled that the recall election date was public information, it did not count as campaigning.
The Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) forbids campaigning during a recall election, while setting a high threshold for a recall to pass, requiring at least half of eligible voters to cast ballots for the results to be valid.
“I am thrilled that we have somehow been able to come this far,” an Appendectomy volunteer surnamed Hsu (徐) said, with other volunteers saying it felt “unreal” to finally be on the eve of the recall election.
Activists from several other groups also came out to support the group’s efforts.
Huang Chien-chung (黃建中), a volunteer with a group known as the Ghost Island Flag Soldiers (鬼島旗兵), said he had traveled from Kaohsiung to help out because of the recall movement’s historic significance.
“This recall is an important historical marker in the exercise of democratic rights by Taiwanese,” he said. “Even if it does not pass, it could still influence the 2016 elections by showing just how KMT legislators suck.”
Participants were treated to a series of appearances by political activists and celebrities, such as Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), musician Jutoupi (豬頭皮), author Neil Peng (馮光遠) and political commentator Yao Li-ming (姚立明).
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) arrived at about 9:30pm, after the rally, which began at 5:30pm, had drawn more than 1,000 people.
Ko did not make any comments on stage, but he nodded to Yao — his executive campaign director when he ran for Taipei mayor — when Yao asked him whether a recall vote is as important as an election, whether residents should cast a vote today, and whether he was on the same side as the crowd.
At a press conference earlier yesterday, Tsai panned the “Sunflower thugs” for pretending to be his supporters and sending out advertisements to push up voter turnout.
Since the recall vote would not be valid unless at least half of Tsai’s constituency in Neihu and Nangang (南港) — which means at least 150,000 voters — turn out for the vote, rallying for higher voter turnout is a vital strategy to ensure that the election is valid.
Tsai accused those who initiated the recall attempt — mostly young people whom he associated with the Sunflower movement — of manufacturing campaign advertisements calling on his supporters to “stand out and veto the recall with ballots” to show their support for Tsai.
Tsai said his attitude toward the recall vote can be summed up in “three noes”: no vote, no care and no publicity.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS