Nearly 60 percent of Kaohsiung residents polled said that they would vote to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), think tank Taiwan Brain Trust, which conducted the survey, said yesterday.
A petition to recall the mayor is undergoing a second review and if it is passed, a vote is to be held in the latter half of June.
Of those polled, 69.7 percent said that they would participate in a vote, while 56 percent said they would still participate if there was a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 infections.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The data showed that, irrespective of the COVID-19 pandemic, Han would likely be recalled, Taiwan Brain Trust director Wu Shih-chang (吳世昌) said.
“From the results of the survey it is clear that Kaohsiung residents have made up their minds. There seems to be a consensus that Han Kuo-yu has not been given a pass on his performance,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), the think tank’s chief executive, criticized Han’s statements about the advantages his administration had brought to the city.
Han’s claims are not reflected in the performance of his administration, Chen said.
Asked whether they were satisfied with Han as mayor, 59.1 percent of respondents said they were not, while 32.4 percent said that they were.
Asked to grade Han’s performance on a scale of zero to 10, 30 percent of respondents gave a grade of zero, while the average was 3.5.
Of those who voted for Han in the 2018 mayoral election, 28 percent said that they regretted having done so.
Should Han’s recall be put to a vote, 59.5 percent of respondents said they would vote in favor of recalling the mayor, while 34.5 percent said they would vote against a recall.
If the COVID-19 pandemic does not worsen, 60.5 percent of city residents are likely to participate in a recall vote and there would likely be more than 1 million votes in favor of a recall, Wu said.
If the COVID-19 situation worsens, there would be an estimated 48.7 percent voter turnout and an estimated 866,330 votes in favor of a recall, which would still meet the threshold, he said.
A turnout of 30 percent is likely all that would be needed to recall Han, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said.
If a vote takes place, it is likely that Han would become the nation’s first local government head to be recalled, he said.
The survey, conducted on Thursday and Friday last week, collected 1,072 valid samples. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS