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.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS