Election commission approves recall vote proposals for 19 lawmakers

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) The Central Election Commission (CEC) said Thursday they had held a committee meeting a day earlier in which recall vote proposals for 19 legislators and a city mayor were approved.

Nine additional recall vote proposals considered by the committee have "not yet met the proposal threshold," according to the CEC, meaning that they still require supplementation before they can be approved.

Although the CEC did not make public the names of the elected politicians as of 8:30 p.m. Thursday, they likely refer to the 19 Kuomintang lawmakers and the currently-suspended Hsinchu City Mayor Kao Hung-an (高虹安) for who recall vote proposals were submitted on Feb. 3, the earliest possible day to submit such petitions.

Those lawmakers include high-profile opposition figures such as KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) and veteran lawmaker Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇).

The other 17 KMT lawmakers whose recall vote proposals were submitted on Feb. 3 are Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀), Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之), Niu Hsu-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), Yen Kuan-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 Ma Wen-chun (馬文君).

Recall vote proposals for two city or county councilors were also approved, according to the CEC, who did not identify them by name, as of Thursday evening.

Recall vote proposals for other national and local lawmakers submitted after Feb. 3 will likely be handled in the coming days to meet legal deadlines.

According to Taiwan's Public Officials Election and Recall Act, certain stipulated types of elected officials shall be removed from office if more than half of at least 25 percent of eligible voters in their electoral district cast ballots in favor of a recall, and if the ballots in favor outnumber those against.

Activists seeking to remove a district-elected lawmaker must first submit a recall proposal signed by more than 1 percent of the total number of eligible voters from the relevant district, the CEC website said.

The CEC committee's actions on Thursday mean that activists who submitted recall vote proposals that were approved may now begin the second stage of collecting signatures from at least 10 percent of eligible voters within 60 days in order to qualify for a legal recall vote to take place.

As of Thursday, the CEC has received 64 recall vote proposals, including 54 for national lawmakers, nine for city or county councilors, and one for the Hsinchu City mayor.

Among this unprecedented wave of recall proposals, more than 30 target KMT lawmakers, who together with eight Taiwan People's Party and two independent lawmakers, hold 62 seats in the 113-seat Legislature.