The recall of former Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) the party’s only member of the Legislative Yuan in Taichung’s second electoral district has raised questions about whether the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) needs to be amended again.
The most high-level advocate of this idea is former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水).
Lin believes that Chen’s recall was the direct result of the rush in 2016 to amend the original version of the act. The DPP at the time supported the amendment, which lowered the requirements for a recall.
Lin says that the
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) yesterday completed a 10-day walk with a night concert featuring artists known for their political advocacy ahead of a recall vote today.
Chen represents Taichung’s second electoral district, which encompasses Dadu (大肚), Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wufong (霧峰) and Wurih (烏日) districts, after last year defeating his predecessor, Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恒) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), scion of a wealthy political family.
“I have only been in this job for one year and nine months, but now am being subjected to public scrutiny,” Chen said, adding that he was physically exhausted after covering close
Ever since former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was recalled last year, “Han fans,” as well as the KMT hierarchy, have made pro-Taiwan lawmakers their enemy No. 1, and Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) has been on top of that list (“Recall part of ‘generational war’: expert,” Oct. 19, page 3).
Chen has always been one of Han’s harshest critics, and Han fans have vowed revenge.
Former legislators Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆) and Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), being such sore losers, were not amused about losing to Chen democratically and have amassed significant resources backed by
The recall vote for Taiwan Statebuilding Party Legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) on Saturday next week has little to do with his performance as a legislator representing Taichung’s second electoral district. It is a local issue, but not in the way that recalls are intended to be. More significantly, it concerns national, and even international, political power play.
Chen has had a target on his back ever since he won the seat in last year’s legislative elections as a dark-horse candidate against then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆).
Yen is the son of former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao