Independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) yesterday weathered a recall vote to retain her councilor seat in Fongshan District (鳳山).
Kaohsiung City Election Commission data showed that 65,391 people voted against recalling her, while 55,261 voted in favor.
The voter turnout was 41.54 percent, the data showed.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), at least 25 percent of eligible voters, in this case 72,892 people, were required to vote in favor of a recall for it to pass.
Organizers of a campaign to recall Huang proposed the motion in June last year, on the grounds that she had shown no interest in Kaohsiung affairs and was therefore unfit to serve, campaign spokesperson Hsu Shang-hsien (徐尚賢) said.
While delivering a speech after the results were revealed, Huang was flanked by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), as well as other Kaohsiung city councilors from the DPP.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in her capacity as DPP chairperson, had called on party members to support Huang.
Huang was in tears at first, momentarily unable to talk, and then began by thanking Fongshan residents for their support.
She also thanked DPP members and other politicians from the pan-green camp.
“We do not want hatred to spread in Taiwan. Fongshan people acted to stop this hatred, to end this retributive recall drive,” she said. “This is a victory for the forces of democracy ... and a victory for pro-Taiwan forces.”
Separately yesterday, DPP spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said the recall result “indicates that Taiwanese detest retributive recalls spearheaded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).”
“Such recall drives are a waste of resources and pervert our democratic system. They also obstruct the expression of diverse ... viewpoints in a maturing society and impede Taiwan’s progress,” she said.
KMT officials in Kaohsiung said that the recall motion failed because other political parties put too many resources into protecting Huang.
Huang officially entered politics in 2018, when she was elected to the Kaohsiung City Council as a New Power Party (NPP) member.
In August last year, she quit the NPP over what she described as “unfair voting rules in the party’s decisionmaking committee.”
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant