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.
A DECADE’S WORK: The two-volume, 1,400-page lexicon has collected more than 20,000 words and phrases, and is expected to help people learning the Liu Dui dialect The Liu Dui Culture Research Association on Saturday unveiled the nation’s first domestically compiled lexicon of Hakka-language words in the Liu Dui dialect, an effort that took a decade of work and cost about NT$7 million (US$233,085 at the current exchange rate). The two-volume, 1,400-page lexicon collected more than 20,000 phrases and words, and is estimated to be of great value in helping people learn the Liu Dui dialect and culture, the association said. It could also become a reference book for teachers, the association added. The lexicon collected phrases and common words used in daily speech, as well as local sayings, phrases
EXPANSION: The transportation ministry is to subsidize Taipei and Kaohsiung’s purchase of 63 multipurpose taxis, as well as the payment of incentives for drivers The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is appropriating nearly NT$60 million (US$2 million) to subsidize plans by the Taipei City Government and the Kaohsiung City Government to expand their multipurpose taxi fleets, it said over the weekend. The ministry said that it has since 2013 subsidized the multipurpose taxi service nationwide, as it has become a way for disabled people to travel. The nation has 980 multipurpose taxis, including 301 in Taipei and 272 in Kaohsiung, ministry statistics showed. Last year, the service was accessed more than 200,000 times in Taipei and 460,000 times in Kaohsiung, which the ministry said shows
The One Bear Museum in Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), a teddy bear museum once touted by the county government as a “luminous pearl” along Provincial Highway No. 13, is facing possible closure. The museum’s building, which was provided by the county government, has a serious water leakage problem and lacks a parking lot for buses to bring in tour groups, Hsinchu County Councilor Lo Shih-shi (羅仕琦) said on Saturday. The county government should step in to rescue the museum, or the negative reviews about the museum on the Internet might affect visitors’ impression of the township and the county, he said. The
‘NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM’: Two DPP legislators said the government needs to help public agencies replace Chinese equipment and pass legislation banning their use More than 200 government entities are together using 1,108 telecommunications devices from Chinese brands, posing a cybersecurity risk, a government report showed. At the suggestion of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee last year, the Executive Yuan investigated 7,704 public institutions to see whether they were using or had procured telecoms equipment manufactured by Chinese companies. They found that as of April 13, of the 3,837 public institutions that responded to their requests, 228 said they had been using equipment made by Chinese brands, including mobile phones, video cameras, drones and other Internet-related devices. The report highlighted products from seven brands considered to
RSS