We Care Kaohsiung planning petition to recall Han

By Ann Maxon / Staff reporter





We Care Kaohsiung, which last year organized a rally drawing 80,000 people, announced on Tuesday evening that it is preparing to launch a petition to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).

Over the past few months, Han has shown himself to be “uninterested and incompetent in running the city,” the group wrote on Facebook.

“Can we accept having someone like him be the mayor of Kaohsiung? The answer should be a resounding ‘no,’” the group added.

A dejected-looking Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu appears in an image made by We Care Kaohsiung. The group is calling for him to be removed from office via a recall vote. Photo copied by Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times

We Care Kaohsiung was last year formed by Kaohsiung residents and civil groups to promote a Nov. 17 rally in the city to oppose smear campaigns and bullying related to the Nov. 24 local elections.

Some people hope to decide whether to recall Han after the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential primary, but the mayor should be recalled regardless of the primary results, the group said.

“To recall Han, we must not wait and need not wait,” it said.

Initiating a recall election is a lengthy process and would require the support of at least 600,000 people, the group said.

To ensure that Han is recalled, the group has held multiple discussions, and consulted many experts and veterans of recall and referendum campaigns, it said.

The recall campaign would be carefully planned, the group said, urging people to support its cause.

To launch an election to recall a mayor, 1 percent of the electorate in Kaohsiung, or 22,814 residents, must sign a first-phase recall petition, according to the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).

Following that, 10 percent of the local electorate, or 228,134 residents, must sign a second-phase petition in 60 days.

To recall the mayor, 25 percent of Kaohsiung’s electorate must vote in favor of recalling him, with the number of “yes” votes exceeding the “no” votes.

Considering that Han was elected mayor with nearly 890,000 votes, We Care Kaohsiung estimated that at least 600,000 “yes” votes would be needed in the recall election.