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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS