High-profile Taiwan mayor loses recall vote in blow for opposition
07 June, 2020
A high-profile mayor from Taiwan's main opposition party lost an acrimonious recall vote on Saturday (Jun 6), auguring new problems for the party that's already reeling from losing January elections on the trunk of strong anti-China sentiment.
The Kuomintang (KMT) was badly beaten in January's presidential and parliamentary polls. Since that time, under a youthful new leader, Johnny Chiang, the party has tried to rethink its unpopular policy of seeking closer ties with China, which claims Taiwan as its sacred territory.
The KMT's presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu, had won the mayorship of the southern city of Kaohsiung in late 2018, an upset trained with had previously been a stronghold for Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
But he faced sustained criticism that he lacked interest in the town, especially when he took a three-month leave of absence from his new mayoral duties to run for president. Saturday's vote was on whether he ought to be recalled as mayor.
Han, who had called on persons to boycott the vote and shop instead, told reporters following the vote went against him that he previously been the victim of DPP smears, though didn't say whether he would challenge the result in court.
"This was an unfair, unjust election," Han said.
The DPP said in a statement the election proved that power originates from the persons and called it an "important milestone in the annals of Taiwan's democratic development".
KMT Chairman Chiang said the party respected the effect, and expressed "remorse" it went against them.
"We didn't properly grasp the warmth of Kaohsiung's citizens, and we didn't respond well to the expectations of Kaohsiung's people," he said.
By 6pm local time (1000 GMT), metropolis election commission said a lot more than 900,000 persons voted for Han to be recalled, against some 25,000 who voted against the recall.
Taiwan's election commission still must formally approve your choice, expected to have a week. Once it can, Han will be dismissed and a fresh mayoral election will be called within three months, in which he cannot run.
The election commission approved the recall vote after a petition organised by WeCare Kaohsiung, a civic group, which applauded the result.
The DPP won January's elections on promises to endure China, portraying a vote for the KMT as a vote for China's Communist Party, a charge the KMT strongly and repeatedly rejected.
Democratic Taiwan has demonstrated no desire to be ruled by autocratic China, which has never renounced the application of force to bring the island under its control.
The recall vote occurred amid renewed anti-government protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong against a Beijing-imposed security law that critics say would undermine most freedoms. The protesters have strong cross-party support in Taiwan.
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