Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors.
Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they submitted contained numerous irregularities and suspected forgeries in contravention of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選罷法).
A first-phase review by local election commissions found more than 1,923 signatures of deceased people in KMT-led recall campaigners, compared with only 12 in civilian-led campaigns against KMT lawmakers. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office has launched investigations into suspected forgeries: As of this week, at least 18 people from eight KMT chapters have been detained and held incommunicado, and nearly 100 have been listed as defendants.
Several leaders of the campaigns to recall DPP legislators have admitted to copying names from the party’s members’ lists and forging signatures. Media reports said that Chang Ke-jin (張克晉), a KMT member, resigned as leader of the campaign to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) after seeing his late mother’s name forged in two petition papers.
The KMT had even called on its supporters to surround a prosecutors’ office in an attempt to interfere with investigations. Some officials in KMT-ruled local governments have also been indicted for illegally assisting the party’s recall efforts. Former Keelung Department of Civil Affairs director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔) has admitted to accessing household registration data to aid the campaigns to recall two DPP councilors. Three Hualien County Government officials have been indicted for conducting “checks” on people who have signed a recall petition against KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (?), which was an act of intimidation and a breach of personal privacy.
The recall motions and political instability are the product of the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party egregious conduct in the legislature. However, instead of engaging in self-reflection, the KMT has responded to public discontent with more infringements on judicial independence and contravention of people’s rights. Some KMT lawmakers have even tried to stigmatize the civic groups campaigning to recall them by calling them “golden apple snails” (福壽螺) or “marginalized people” (邊緣人).
While 31 recall petitions against KMT lawmakers have been submitted for the second phase, which could result in recall votes being held in the next two months, none of the KMT campaigns against DPP legislators are expected to meet the signature requirements by the deadline. It would be another major setback to the party’s efforts to counter the recall pressure against it. The KMT has failed to get public support for its calls, not even from its own party members, including proposals to hold a no-confidence vote against the Cabinet or to recall the president.
How many KMT legislators would be recalled and whether the DPP could win some of those seats in by-elections to achieve a majority in the legislature remain to be seen. Nonetheless, the unprecedented wave of recall motions against the KMT should be a lesson to the party — that a legislative majority does not mean it could pass arbitrary legislation to serve its own interests. The public is ever-ready to defend democracy and the rule of law.
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Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
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