TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Central Election Commission responded to the first batch of recall petitions on Friday, saying 19 recall campaigns targeting KMT legislators may proceed to the second phase of collecting signatures.
Additionally, nine petitions submitted in February targeting DPP legislators did not meet the required threshold, LTN reported.
Across Taiwan, a total of 64 recall petitions were submitted to the CEC in February, with 54 targeting lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan. The other recall petitions include one for Hsinchu City Mayor Kao Hung-an (高虹安), and nine for local city or county councilors.
The 28 petitions that received a formal response from the CEC on Friday were all submitted before controversial amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act went into effect on Feb. 11.
The 19 recall petitions that may proceed to the second phase include the following KMT legislators: Wang Heng-wei (王鴻薇), Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之), Niu Hsiu-ting (牛煦庭), Tu Chuan-chi (涂權吉), Lu Ming-che (魯明哲), Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲), Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲), Chiu Jo-hua (邱若華), Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), Yu Hao (游顥), Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Yen Kuang-heng (顏寬恒),Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔), Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪), Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋), Ting Hsueh-chung (丁學忠), Huang Chien-pin (黃建賓), and caucus leader Fu Kun-qi (傅崐萁).
The recall campaigns that failed to meet the necessary signature threshold targeted nine DPP legislators including: Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶), Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸), Wu Chi-ming (吳琪銘), Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), Saidhai Tahovecahe (伍麗華), Asenay Daliyalrep (陳瑩). Although the petitions targeting DPP legislators failed to meet requirements, the CEC is required to give formal notice of discrepancies to petitioners, with the opportunity to submit supplemental signatures within 10 days, per LTN.
The CEC is still reviewing 36 other recall petitions that have been submitted. A statement on which campaigns may proceed to the second stage is expected in early March. Most of the recall petitions (47 out of 64) were submitted to the CEC before new amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act became law.
The previous version of the Recall Act, which will govern the recall campaigns announced Friday, requires petitioners in the second phase to collect 10% of signatures from a constituency in the next two months.
