The Recall Election for Mayor Han Kuo-yu Will Not Only Destroy Han

 The Recall Election for Mayor Han Kuo-yu Will Not Only Destroy Han

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 20, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The co-sponsorship drive for the recall of Han Kuo-yu, Mayor of Kaohsiung City, surpassed 320,000, exceeding the 228,000 required for phase two under the Public Officials Election and Recall Act. From the perspective of the DPP, the recall election to remove Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu, will probably be conducted at the end of June, at which time as long as the “yes” vote exceeds the “no” vote, and the “yes” vote exceeds one quarter of the total number of all eligible voters at the time of the mayoral election, or about 580,000 votes, then the recall will be validated. Some commentators believe that the recall election will certainly pass, and asked Han Kuo-yu to resign on his own initiative to avoid embarrassment.

Groups for the recall pushed for the move with great fanfare, while Han Kuo-yu and his City Hall team dedicate themselves to implementing his campaign pledges. In mid-February, Han issued project “Full Stars Over the Sky”, aiming to subsidize college students and City Hall civil servants in Kaohsiung City for studies abroad, allocating US$20,000 per person per year, in order to upgrade the international competitiveness of Kaohsiung City; the project will finance the first batch of college students starting September this year. Last year, Kaohsiung's unemployment rate reached the lowest rate in eight years, lower than the national average. In January this year, agricultural exports to Singapore and Malaysia were not affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, producing a brilliant report card of 24 tons.

The recall move is a vicious struggle; it will only make Taiwan worse. Whether elected public officials perform well or not, they should be subject to scrutiny at the time of re-election, and not be "ambushed" by the political forces of his predecessor during his term of office; recall is a special exception, yet there is a tendency make it a tool and routine. The people must be alert that the vicious recall struggle derived from the recall Han Kuo-yu move, once being allowed to blossom from the seed of malice, will destroy the hard-won electoral system and democratic politics.

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