TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The only member of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party out of the nation's 113 legislators will face a recall vote on Aug. 28, despite the postponement of four nationwide referendums scheduled the same day due to COVID-19, reports said Friday (July 2).
The National Election Commission (NEC) announced Friday that it was moving the four plebiscites to Dec. 18. Even so, the recall vote targeting lawmaker Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) will be held as scheduled in his Taichung district.
If 25 percent of the 291,122 eligible voters in the area support going forward with the recall and a majority of citizens cast a ballot affirming it, he will lose his seat, CNA reported. The NEC accepted the application for a recall because it had received 36,073 valid endorsements, exceeding the minimum amount of 10 percent of eligible voters, though 7,906 of the signatures were not accepted.
A Chen aide said the legislator and his team were prioritizing the fight against COVID-19.
Two similar recall votes at the beginning of the year showed divergent results. In Kaohsiung, independent city councilor Huang Chieh (黃捷) comfortably survived a vote, but in Taoyuan, ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) City Councilor Wang Hao-yu (王浩宇) was ousted.
Both votes were seen as revenge for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) own recall defeat in June 2020. On Aug. 15, citizens in the southern town overwhelmingly voted to replace the recalled Kuomintang (KMT) mayor with DPP candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).