A petition to recall independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) has gained enough signatures to proceed to the second stage, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Tuesday.
The CEC said the petitioners have 60 days to collect the required number of signatures for the second stage.
The first stage of a recall petition against a legislator requires the signatures of 1 percent of eligible voters in the lawmaker’s constituency. The bar is raised to 10 percent for the second stage before a recall vote can be held.
There are 244,748 eligible voters in Lim’s constituency, Taipei’s Fifth District, which means that at least 24,474 signatures are required to proceed to a vote.
The recall petition was initiated by one of Lim’s constituents, Cheng Ta-ping (鄭大平), along with independent Taipei City Councilor Chung Hsiao-ping (鍾小平) and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Eric Huang (黃裕鈞). It gained about 4,300 first-stage signatures, which were submitted to the CEC on July 19 for review.
The initiators said Lim should be recalled because he had failed in his duties as a representative of Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), which became the epicenter of a domestic COVID-19 outbreak that started in the area in May.
Lim, 45, was elected as an independent last year to a second legislative term, after serving his first term as a New Power Party lawmaker. Before his political career, he had gained international success as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Chthonic and was known as an advocate for Taiwanese independence.
Asked about the CEC’s statement, Lim said he respects the process and that his main focus remains on combating COVID-19 and supporting local businesses in Wanhua.
There have been several recall efforts since last year, including a successful campaign to remove Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) as Kaohsiung’s KMT mayor. In January this year, Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) of the Democratic Progressive Party was removed as a Taoyuan city councilor in a recall effort, while independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) survived a Feburary recall vote.
A recall vote on Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) is scheduled for Oct. 23.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS