The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday warned the public against disseminating disinformation aimed at facilitating a legislator’s recall, after allegations emerged that voters in New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang’s (黃國昌) electoral district have received fake telephone calls urging them to support Huang’s ouster.
Some of the 251,191 eligible voters in Huang’s 12th electoral district in New Taipei City have allegedly received telephone calls of a recorded message claiming to be from the New Taipei City Election Commission urging them to vote to remove Huang in a recall election next Saturday.
“We did not try to promote any aspects of the recall campaign through a recorded telephone message,” the city’s election commission said in a new release issued on Thursday.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
The CEC yesterday said police had been notified about the matter and have launched an investigation.
Citing Article 104 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the CEC said any attempt to disseminate rumors or false allegations by text, picture, audio, video, speech or any other method for the purpose of having a recall proposal adopted or vetoed, is punishable by a maximum term of five years in prison.
The NPP’s New Taipei City chapter yesterday provided evidence of the alleged fake telephone calls to a local police precinct, calling on the authorities to get to the bottom of the matter.
“We received complaints from residents of Sijhih (汐止) and Rueifang (瑞芳) districts last night [on Thursday], saying that they received telephone calls claiming to be the election commission and urging them to vote in support of Huang’s recall,” chapter deputy executive director Lee Chao-li (李兆立) said.
One of the residents who received the call captured the process on video, while another resident filmed a campaign vehicle broadcasting a message similar to that used in the telephone calls.
Both videos were submitted to police as evidence, Lee said.
The Greater Taipei Stability Power Alliance, which initiated the recall referendum, yesterday denied that it was involved in making the calls.
The recall campaign was initiated by alliance chairman Sun Chi-cheng (孫繼正) in May because he claimed that Huang purposely concealed his support for same-sex marriage before getting elected.
The recall election requires 62,798 “yes” votes to remove the NPP legislator from his post.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-han
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