Taipei: A total of 24 lawmakers from Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), along with suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao, will face recall votes on July 26, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced Friday evening.
According to Focus Taiwan, the 24 KMT lawmakers facing recall votes include legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi, and lawmakers from Taipei such as Wang Hung-wei, Hsu Chiao-hsin, Lee Yen-hsiu, Lo Chih-chiang, and Lai Shyh-bao, among others across Taiwan. The announcement also stated that Ann Kao, who was elected in 2022 as the first local government head from the Taiwan People's Party but left the party last year amid a corruption scandal, will face a vote to determine her continuation in office.
Kao has been suspended from her mayoral position since July 2024 following a court sentence of seven years and four months in prison, along with a four-year civil rights suspension due to a corruption case from her time as a lawmaker between 2020 and 2022. The case is ongoing.
Televised briefings involving both recall initiators and the targeted lawmakers and official are scheduled from July 16 to 25, as per the announcement. The CEC held a meeting to confirm the verification of second-stage signatures for recall initiatives. Although CEC head Lee Chin-yung mentioned during a legislative meeting last week that his agency expected to confirm the results of 26 recall proposals, an official from the CEC informed CNA on Friday that only 24 were approved, with two still under verification by local election authorities.
The recall drive, initiated by civil society groups and supported by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), represents an unprecedented effort to remove nearly all KMT lawmakers directly elected to Taiwan's Legislature on January 13, 2024.
According to the CEC, recall bids have been initiated against 50 lawmakers, including 35 of the KMT's 39 directly elected lawmakers and 15 of the DPP's 38 directly elected lawmakers, as well as Kao and eight local councilors. Four proposals targeting KMT lawmakers have been disqualified by the CEC for not meeting the second-stage signature requirement, while seven others are still under review.
Meanwhile, most recall bids against DPP lawmakers failed at the second stage, with only two still within the signature-gathering period, CEC data indicated.
To initiate a recall vote, petitioners must first gather signatures from at least 1 percent of eligible voters in a constituency, followed by collecting signatures from 10 percent in a second stage, as stipulated by Taiwan's Public Officials Election and Recall Act.