[新聞] A Milestone for the Appendectomy..

[belac2011 (戰士凱樂)]

割闌尾計畫寫作＋島報編輯 = 優質英文新聞稿！
希望更多國外朋友能夠多認識臺灣的罷免議題！^^
歡迎各位分享轉錄！

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NOTE: Special thanks to Appendectomy Project 割闌尾計畫 who made this article
possible. And big thanks to the editors of Report for Taiwan who really
worked hard to make this article splendid!

==================

【A Milestone for the Appendectomy Project: Farewell Legislator Tsai】

From Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement in March to Hong Kong’s Umbrella
Revolution in September, a new civil rights movement is emerging in East
Asia. A significant part of this movement is the effort of Taiwanese citizens
to impeach legislators, which has been taking place since April. Though
Taiwan is the first democratic state among pan-Chinese countries, its
citizens have never practiced their right to impeach a public official.
Thanks to extremely high legal threshold, no impeachment petition has ever
reached the final stages impeach- the impeachment referendum. However, this
may finally change on Dec 15th, 2014. Emerging from The Sunflower Movement, a
volunteer-run activist group called the Appendectomy Project (a metaphor for
the surgical removal of the appendix in likeness to the removal of
incompetent KMT legislators) has worked relentlessly on the impeachment of
three Taipei area legislators and has achieved unforeseen, landmark successes.

The main target of the Appendectomy Project is KMT legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正
元). The period for collecting signatures in support of impeaching Tsai ended
on Monday, Dec 15th. So far, 59898 signatures have been collected. These
signed petitions will be delivered to the Taipei City Election Commission (台
北市選委會) for official review. In case the Commission tries to hinder the
impeachment efforts by ruling some of the signatures invalid, the volunteers
have gathered 50% more than the required number of signatures to ensure that
the impeach process will hit the historical mark of entering the third and
final stage-- Impeach Referendum.

The project’s spokesperson, known as “Mr. Lin From Taipei” (台北林先生)
said: “This is a pioneering step for Taiwan’s citizens to take back their
right to impeach. It is a proud day for our volunteers who contributed their
time, effort and resources. It is also a proud day for the local district
citizens who participated in this impeachment and for everyone who cares
about our impeachment actions. We thank you all for making this possible.”.

General public suspicion towards the project’s feasibility was evident as
legislator Alex Tsai replied to the issue of him being the top target in the
impeachment polls, "I'm the No. 1 target of this impeachment, but let me tell
you, I'm not worried at all!"

According to the Election and Impeachment Act for Public Servants (公職人員選
舉罷免法), a impeachment petition must be endorsed by at least two percent of
eligible voters in the electoral district. After the petition passes the
Central Election Commission (CEC) review, the petition must then be endorsed
by at least 13 percent of the eligible voters who did not sign the petition
in the initial phase to make it to Impeach Referendum. Although 12 million
NTD was raised in three days, facing the world’s most difficult impeachment
requirement of obtaining 13% petition signatures (~40000) in 30 days and also
CEC's meticulous nitpicking in petition forms, qualifications, etc., has made
it very challenging.

"This process has never been easy. We’re fully aware of how unreasonably
high the impeachment threshold is, but our goal is to exercise our civil
rights in a lawful way, within the system. Through impeachment we can replace
incompetent legislators. Also, we can show our people that good politics is
actually a reachable target. That is the reason why so many citizens are
willing to join us." said Mr. Lin. “With the young generation taking part,
the Appendectomy Project showed creativity and innovation in the petition
drive. We even earned recognition from the middle-aged generation, and
petitions were signed by citizens of all ages.”

At the scene of the movement, the atmosphere could not be merrier. People
greeted and congratulated each other for setting such a milestone for Taiwan’
s democracy. In anticipation of the first-ever impeachment referendum in
Taiwan’s history, the Appendectomy Project now encourages all eligible
voters in the district, whether they support the impeachment or not, to
exercise their hard-fought right to impeach their own representative.

The next step for the Appendectomy Project is to impeach New Taipei City KMT
legislators Lin Hung-Chih (林鴻池) and Wu Yu-Sheng(吳育昇). The legal
deadline for collecting sufficient signatures to trigger impeachment
referendum is on Dec 27th. Racing to meet the threshold, the local unit of
the Appendectomy Project is planning a project called City Impeach, which
will set up impeach stations in front of all convenience stores in both
legislators' electoral districts. The Appendectomy Project calls for all the
volunteers who participated in impeaching Tsai for help. "This is a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Tseng Kuang-Chih, one of the
Appendectomy Project local unit representatives. “Please come out for
another day to run these incompetent legislators down the drain. We welcome
everyone to join City Impeachment on Dec 20 and the succeeding Impeachment
Referendum campaign. This is a project for all who cherish Taiwan."

島報新聞連結：http://ppt.cc/BOrV

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※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 111.240.175.26
※ 文章網址: http://www.ptt.cc/bbs/PublicIssue/M.1419013707.A.93C.html
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