Hualien County prosecutors yesterday searched offices and questioned 11 people in relation to accusations that the county government illegally sent representatives to people’s homes to verify their identity on a recall petition.
The controversy arose last month when a Hualien County resident said that a woman who claimed to be from the Hualien City Household Registration Office asked about her information on a recall petition.
The Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it had opened an investigation after receiving evidence reported to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office last month.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
The office said it ordered the Investigation Bureau’s Hualien authorities to inquire about relevant documents from the Hualien County Election Commission and question personnel.
It said it came to the conclusion that Hualien County Civil Affairs Department Director Ming Liang-chen (明良臻) and other officials involved knew that verifying recall petitioners’ identities falls under the authority of local election commissions.
However, the commission did not entrust the Hualien City Household Registration Office to verify recall petitioners’ signatures, the office said.
Therefore, Ming and the other defendants allegedly misused personal data from the register of recall petitioners, while the household registration office was verifying petitioners’ household information as ordered by the commission, it said.
They are suspected of contravening articles 16, 41 and 44 of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the office added.
Prosecutors yesterday ordered the Hualien County Investigation Station to search the county’s Civil Affairs Department and the household registration office to obtain evidence, it said, adding that prosecutors would continue to investigate neutrally and objectively.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday in a statement condemned the governing party for using judicial power to bar local election commissions from verifying recall petitioners’ identities as required by law.
According to Article 79 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), local election commissions should verify recall petitioners’ identities, including their name, ID and whether their signature is authentic, the KMT said, adding that verifying such information with petitioners in person is not prohibited by the act.
Given that the prosecutors’ office is interfering with the county government’s administration, concern has been raised over whether the Democratic Progressive Party is preparing to forge signatures in second-stage recall petitions and threatening local election commissions not to verify the signatures, the KMT said.
That would undermine the executive branch’s power to exercise its public authority and the nation’s legal system, it said, calling on the government not to bar public servants from enforcing the law to protect civil rights.
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS