A draft amendment proposing that an elected official can only be recalled if the number of recall votes exceeds the number of votes with which they were originally elected is based on a questionable argument, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would become the only country with such a recall system if it is passed.
The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday reviewed draft amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), including one motioned by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) to increase the threshold for passage.
This proposal would make it difficult, but not impossible for elected officials to be recalled, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said, citing the example of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who was recalled with 939,090 votes after being elected as major with 892,545 votes.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, none of the other recall elections held in recent years had a voting rate greater than that of their regular election counterparts, he said, adding that the threshold proposed by Hsu would make future recalls unlikely to succeed
No threshold was set in the act on recall voting rates, and the legal force of a recall vote should not be invalidated because of a low turnout, CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.
The votes an official received in their election should not be used as a benchmark for the votes necessary to recall them, as some people who voted them into the post might change their mind and vote to recall them, Lee said.
The current recall mechanism is deficient due to the low passage thresholds for the petition and the recall election, making it easily abused for political means, Hsu said.
Polls have shown that more than half of the public are opposed to allowing the minority to invalidate the majority, and they agreed with the amendment, Hsu said.
Lee said that Hsu’s phrasing of “the minority invalidating the majority” oversimplified the problem, as turnouts, voting rates and numbers of candidates differ between recalls and elections.
The problem does exist and can be discussed, but comparing recall votes with original votes is an unsuitable solution, he said.
Meanwhile, DPP lawmakers quarreled with KMT Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), who hosted the committee meeting and reduced the speaking time for each legislator, saying that there were too many speakers.
She muted the microphone when some DPP lawmakers were speaking, causing complaints from the DPP caucus.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS