The Executive Yuan said that it would designate an acting mayor for Kaohsiung next week after Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) was recalled in a vote yesterday.
Han has said he accepts the result of the recall election.
According to Article 91 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the Central Election Commission (CEC) should announce the results of the recall vote within seven days of it being held.
Photo: CNA
On the day the CEC officially announces Han’s removal from office, the Executive Yuan would announce the name of its appointed acting Kaohsiung mayor, Executive Yuan spokesman Ting Yi-ming (丁怡銘) said.
There are more than two years until the next local elections.
However, according to the act, a mayoral by-election must be held within three months of the CEC’s announcement of the recall result, putting the by-election date on Sept. 12 at the latest.
Ting quoted Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as saying that all the people who cast their votes are on the same boat regardless of whether they voted for or against recalling Han.
What matters most is that everyone should show unity when developing Kaohsiung, which would be in the interests of city residents, Ting quoted Su as saying.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said that the recall vote was an expression of a basic constitutional right.
The outcome of every vote is the most current manifestation of the public’s political will, she said, adding that every politician in the nation should be humbled by the outcome.
“The DPP will continue to stand together with the people of Kaohsiung, and work together with them to build a happy, prosperous city,” she said.
KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said that he “respected the outcome of the recall vote,” but denounced the DPP for allegedly manipulating the vote, adding that it would affect the development of Taiwan’s democracy.
Speaking at the KMT’s Kaohsiung office, Chiang expressed thanks for Kaohsiung residents’ past support for the KMT, but said he regretted that the party did not live up to city residents’ expectations.
The KMT would take responsibility for its failures in the city, and would work harder to meet residents’ hopes and demands, he said, adding that Han and other party members would meet to prepare for the by-election “and win back the city’s trust.”
The New Power Party on Facebook called the recall vote a “victory for Taiwan’s democracy.”
The outcome reaffirmed that in a democratic nation, citizens are the masters and politicians must humbly serve the people, it wrote, adding that it would continue to supervise politicians in Kaohsiung.
“These 530 days that Han was in office prove that his political statements were all lies,” it wrote. “The dream of becoming rich he gave to Kaohsiung was a cover for his dream of becoming president.”
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) said in a statement that “the recall process — from the petition to the outcome of the vote — has written a new page in the history of the autonomy of regional politics in Taiwan.”
The result demonstrated that the public did not need to wait for four years to express their political will, it wrote, adding that politicians need to hold themselves to a higher standard to win the public’s support.
Kaohsiung still faces problems, such as low wages and a loss of industry, which neither the DPP nor the KMT have been able to solve, it said.
The TPP said that it has the responsibility to provide an option to voters other than the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang, Sean Lin, Shih Hsiao-kuang, Fang Chih-hsien and Huang Hsin-po
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS