2020 Kaohsiung mayoral recall vote
recall election
The 2020 Kaohsiung mayoral recall vote (Chinese: 高雄市第三屆市長韓國瑜罷免案) was a recall election held on 6 June 2020 to recall the incumbent mayor of Kaohsiung, Han Kuo-yu. The recall was successful, as the number of agree votes (939,090) outnumbered disagree votes and exceeded the minimum requirement of 574,996. An acting mayor was appointed by the Executive Yuan and held office until 24 August 2020, nine days after a by-election was held.
The vote is the largest-scale recall vote in Taiwan in terms of electorate, and is the first ever successful recall of a Taiwanese mayor or magistrate.
Background
Han Kuo-yu was elected mayor of Kaohsiung City in the 24 November 2018 local election. However, his popularity quickly dwindled after he began campaigning for the 2020 Taiwanese presidential election, leading to a recall proposal on 26 December 2019. On 17 January 2020, a petition to recall Han cleared the first threshold with 28,560 signatures, exceeding the required 1% of the electorate (22,814 signatures). On 7 April, the city's electoral commission verified that 377,662 of approximately 406,000 signatures collected in the second phase of the recall petition were valid, clearing the threshold of 10% of the electorate. The Central Election Commission certified the validity of collected signatures on 17 April, and scheduled a recall vote on 6 June 2020.
Han contested the legality of the recall in court, claiming that petitioners had been collecting signatures before he had served a full year as mayor, in violation of Article 75 of the Civil Servants and Election and Recall Act.
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