The Central Election Commission yesterday said that a motion to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taoyuan City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) had been approved and the vote would be held on Jan. 16.
The motion was proposed by Hope Media executive officer Tang Ping-jung (唐平榮).
Eligible voters in the constituency represented by Wang number 315,143, of which 31,515 had to sign for the recall motion to proceed, the commission said.
Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times
The commission received 38,922 signatures, of which 5,506 were invalid, it said, adding that the number of valid signatures exceeded the threshold.
Wang would be asked to provide by Dec. 3 documents in his defense, while a televised debate on the recall would be held between Jan. 6 and Jan. 15, the commission said, adding that voting on Jan. 16 would run from 8am to 4pm.
The count would be verified and the result announced by Jan. 22, it said.
In related news, a group seeking to recall independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Chieh (黃捷) yesterday delivered the second phase of signatures — totaling 40,918 — to the Kaohsiung City Election Commission.
Group spokesman Hsu Shang-hsien (徐尚賢) said that Fongshan District (鳳山) — which Huang represents — “does not need to be represented by someone who contributes to social instability and fails to live up to their own ideals.”
Huang has said that she wants to develop “rainbow” industries in Fongshan.
Critics have said that the plan would lead to social instability and would not respect heterosexuals.
They say that Huang’s absence when the city council voted on a measure to not permit residue of leanness-enhancing feed additives in meat showed that she does not live up to her own standards.
Huang yesterday said that she would remain focused on issues that require attention.
She called on her supporters who said that they wanted to protest the recall to stand down and continue with their lives.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
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