Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Friday urged supporters not to vote in the June 6 referendum to recall him, saying that “democracy means respecting diversity and embracing freedom.”
“I hope people will not get too worked up or antagonistic,” he said in a video posted on Facebook, adding that his supporters should “not engage in any political activities” on the day of the vote and those outside of Kaohsiung should not travel to the city.
He said that everyone, while observing disease prevention measures, should instead “go out for a stroll, spend money and, as much as possible, not allow their lives and their businesses to be affected by politics.”
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
In response to the video, Wecare Kaohsiung founder Aaron Yin (尹立) said that the message was a trick, and that if Han is recalled he would say that it was because his supporters did not vote.
Yin said that Han had also previously lied about property transactions, which he later said were common knowledge.
Han is “two-faced like Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣),” Yin said.
Attorney Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元) had filed for an injunction against the recall on the same day that Chiang visited Kaohsiung, Yin said.
Han has acted in ways that were an abuse of power, and has torn down signs advertising the recall, Yin added.
Wecare organizer Chen Kuan-jung (陳冠榮), the lead petitioner of the campaign to recall Han, said that the mayor has claimed to be focused on municipal duties, when he has actually been working toward stopping the recall.
“Han said the recall was no big deal, but to him it clearly is a big deal. It is like when he said he would not abandon the city and go run in the presidential election, which is exactly what he did,” Chen said, adding that Han has refused to hold a city council meeting on the recall.
“Today, the nation’s junior-high school students are taking their university entrance exams. You would think Han would instead use yesterday’s video as an opportunity to offer words of encouragement,” Democratic Progressive Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Chien Huan-tsung (簡煥宗) said.
A topic covered in the social studies portion of the exams concerns elections and recalls, so it would have been fitting for Han to address it with students, Chien added.
Meanwhile, former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) — who had previously called on Han’s supporters to vote in opposition to the recall — yesterday said that supporters should respect Han’s wishes, and encouraged them to go out and spend money to support Kaohsiung businesses.
Chiang on Friday also shared Han’s video on Facebook.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
New Taipei City prosecutors have indicted a cram school teacher in Sinjhuang District (新莊) for allegedly soliciting sexual acts from female students under the age of 18 three times in exchange for cash payments. The man, surnamed Su (蘇), committed two offenses in 2023 and one last year, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. The office in recent days indicted Su for contraventions of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), which prohibits "engaging in sexual intercourse or lewd acts with a minor over the age of 16, but under the age of 18 in exchange for
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS