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.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
RSS