About 500 protesters demonstrated on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei yesterday, vowing to recall President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and lawmakers in the pan-green camp.
The protesters rallied around several themes, accusing Tsai of rigging the Jan. 11 presidential election, that she “bought” her doctorate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and that Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers who pander to her should be recalled.
Democracy Watch Alliance convener Huang Cheng-chung (黃正忠) said that if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) does not take action on the death of KMT Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源), he would quit the party.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Hsu, who strongly supported Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), was found dead after falling from his 17th-floor apartment in Kaohsiung on the night of June 6, several hours after the city’s voters cast their ballots in favor of recalling Han.
Huang said that Hsu died a wrongful death, and that yesterday’s rally sought in part to redress the injustice perpetrated against him.
If the KMT “does not have the guts,” he would leave the party and run in the Kaohsiung mayoral by-election to avenge Hsu, said Huang, who is from Kaohsiung.
China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) chairman Chang An-le (張安樂), who also joined the demonstration, said that Hsu was one of the two politicians in the pan-blue camp that he respected the most — the other one being Jenn Lann Temple (鎮瀾宮) chairman Yen Ching-piao (顏清標).
Han singlehandedly saved the KMT in the 2018 nine-in-one local elections with his rising popularity, but KMT heavyweights, including former KMT chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), brought him down for their own gain, he said, adding that Han, who ran as the KMT’s presidential candidate in January, could have brought eight years of peace to the Taiwan Strait had he been elected.
“KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) asked us not to initiate revenge recalls, but that is exactly what we are going to do,” retired Taipei City University of Science and Technology lecturer Chou Ming-tai (周明台) said.
New Power Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) and Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) are DPP members in all but name, Chou added.
They, along with DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and DPP Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇), are all “dregs” that must be tossed out, Chou said, adding that the four politicians — all vocal critics of Han — should be the targets of a revenge recall campaign.
The DPP has announced a Kaohsiung mayoral by-election for Aug. 15, just two months after Han was recalled, even though the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) states that a by-election should be held within three months of a recall vote, Chou said.
“Give the DPP an inch and it will take a mile,” he said. “The only way to topple the DPP is through a full-on clash.”
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS