A vote to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is to be held on June 6, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday after it verified the public endorsements of a recall petition.
The CEC verified the legitimacy of about 400,000 signatures of eligible voters in Kaohsiung, surpassing the threshold of 228,134, or 10 percent of the 2.28 million eligible voters in the mayoral election in November 2018.
By law, a recall vote must be held within 60 days of the CEC verifying the petition.
Photo: CNA
For the recall motion to pass, at least 25 percent of eligible voters — about 571,000 — must vote in favor of the recall measure, in addition to the total number of people voting for the measure exceeding those voting against it.
Led by Wecare Kaohsiung founder Aaron Yin (尹立) and other activist groups in Kaohsiung, the petition was initiated in June last year, after Han, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), announced his presidential bid less than six months into his mayoral term.
The groups described Han’s presidential bid as a “betrayal,” saying that he was “quitting on Kaohsiung.”
Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times
Han has said that the recall effort is politically motivated, but the recall campaigners said that the drive to remove him was based on a grassroots movement, and that Han had hit a resonant chord of indignation and bitterness among Kaohsiung residents.
Meanwhile, the Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday rejected a request by Han supporters to block the recall campaign, although Han’s lawyer, Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元), said that he would file an appeal.
Former Kaohsiung Information Bureau director-general Anne Wang (王淺秋) and Yeh on April 8 filed a request asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction to halt the recall campaign.
The court dismissed Han’s complaints that recall campaigners had “jumped the gun in collecting signatures,” ruling that the claim did not demonstrate the need for urgency in issuing a preliminary injunction against the recall and that there was no need to bypass existing procedures being used to handle the issue.
Han’s legal team had filed for an administrative motion, arguing that the groups that initiated the recall petition had breached Article 75 of the Civil Servants and Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) by collecting signatures before Han had been in office for one year.
The team also sought a review of the CEC’s right to proceed with a recall vote against Han.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS