The mayor from the main opposition party of Taiwan lost acrimonious recall vote on Saturday, auguring new issues for the party that is already reeling from losing the January election on the back of the strong anti-china sentiment.
In January, Kuomintang was badly beaten in the parliamentary and presidential elections. Since then, Johnny Chiang, the new youthful leader of the party, has tried to review its unpopular stance of seeking closer ties with Beijing, which also claims Taiwan as part of its territory.
Han Kuo-yu, the presidential candidate of KMT, won the mayorship of Kaohsiung, a city in southern Taiwan in late 2018, an upset given that the area was previously a stronghold of the Democratic Progressive Party.
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After he took the leave from his position as a mayor for three months to contest the presidential election, he faced sustained criticism that he lacked interest in the matters of the city. Saturday’s vote was on whether Han should be recalled as the mayor of the city.
Han called on the people to boycott the vote and go for shopping. While talking to the reports, he said that after the majority vote went against him, he has been the victim of DPP’s smears, though they did not clarify whether he would challenge the results in court.
Meanwhile, the DPP called the elections the biggest milestone in the democratic history of Taiwan, and it has also proved that the power comes from the people. Chiang, the chairman of the KMT party, expressed remorse that the vote went against them and added that he respected the results.
The election commission said on Saturday that more than 900,000 people for Han to be recalled as Mayor, and nearly 25,000 who voted against it. Within a week, the commission is also expected to approve the decision formally.
Once it does, Han will be dismissed and a new mayoral vote will be held in three months, in which he cannot participate. After the petition organized by a civic group, WeCare Kaohsiung, the election commission approved the recall vote.
On the promises to stan up to China, the DPP won the January elections, portraying the vote to KMT as a vote to China’s Communist Party, a charged which KMT has repeatedly and emphatically rejected.
Taiwan has always resisted to come under Chinese rule, which has never renounced to use military power to bring the island under its control.
