The DPP caucus yesterday hit back at KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who on Tuesday said that the Central Election Commission had added dead people’s signatures to the petition for her proposed referendum.
The Central Election Commission on Tuesday approved Lu’s referendum proposal, but said it would report to prosecutors the 11,849 signatures that allegedly belonged to people who had passed away before the proposal was launched.
Lu on Tuesday alleged that the commission was inflating the number of signatures that belonged to deceased individuals, pointing to the fact that the commission had released two numbers regarding the total number of signatures tendered for the referendum: 480,000 and 490,000.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Using dead individuals’ signatures should be considered forgery and Lu should apologize for her actions, which have hurt democracy in the nation, DPP Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) said.
Staff at local household registration offices painstakingly verified each signatory in question and Lu should apologize for sullying the reputation of civil servants, Ho added.
According to the offices’ reports, most of the signatures were from deceased individuals who had been registered as living in Taipei and New Taipei City, Ho said.
“It would seem as if Legislator Lu is accusing New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), also a KMT member, of helping the commission falsify its data,” Ho said.
The commission has said that it would base its final report on the results of investigations by local household registration offices, which the KMT neglected to mention in its protest, as it intended to slander the commission, DPP Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) said.
The KMT was not sure how many signatures it delivered to the commission, demonstrating a lack of professionalism, he said.
Chang Liao asked whether Lu was truly concerned about air pollution, or was simply using the issue as a political bargaining chip.
DPP Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) presented several signatures in the petition for Lu’s referendum proposal that he said seemed to have the same penmanship, adding that this was evidence that the signatures had been forged.
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