The Appendectomy Project — a campaign to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) — accused the police of brutality after one of its volunteers nicknamed A-tai (阿泰) was handcuffed and kept at a police station for two hours.
With the recall vote scheduled for tomorrow, the Appendectomy Project held a rally to “warn the public not to campaign for the recall” — as the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) prohibits campaign activities for the recall of an elected official.
Four police officers declared the volunteers holding placards warning the public not to campaign for the recall in violation of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), saying they had received complaints of traffic obstruction.
The volunteers said that four people standing at different corners could not be judged an assembly and A-tai said to the officers, “do you know what you’re doing is wrong?”
The officers accused A-tai of obstructing official duties and took him to the police station after handcuffing him, according to a video recording provided by the Appendectomy Project.
A-tai was kept in the police station for two hours until his release.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) voiced concerns over the incident and said her office was told by the Nangang Police Precinct, which the officers belong to, that the officers might have overreacted.
The Nangang Police Precinct has promised to launch a probe, the precinct said.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said he instructed the city police to handle the case in accordance with the law, adding that he was unclear whether the four volunteers were breaking the law.
A post on Ko's Facebook called for citizens to vote in tomorrow’s recall referendum.
“In the past Taiwan has never completed a recall election, so regardless of your stance, it is imperative to make sure this recall does not fall short at the half-way mark,” the post said.
Ko said restrictions on broadcasting campaign messages during a recall campaign ridiculous, adding that just as propaganda during an election period is necessary, you also need to spread the word during a recall campaign so that voters have all the information about how bad the person being recalled is.
Taipei City Election Commission Deputy Director General Huang Hsi-ming (黃細明) said calling for people to vote in the recall election would be “inappropriate” and was likely a violation of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act. He declined to comment on Ko’s Facebook post, saying that actions must be reported to the agency and examined by a supervisory commission to determine their legality.
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