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.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a