Detailed figures from the nine recall vote proposals supported by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) showed that they contained nearly 1,000 signatures of people who are deceased, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said.
The commission on Thursday said that the recall vote proposals for 19 KMT legislators were approved, while another nine proposals seeking to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have “not yet met the proposal threshold” and require supplementation before they can be approved.
Collected signatures reviewed by the commission’s local branches showed that the nine recall proposals for DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸), Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), Wu Li-hua (伍麗華), Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), Lee Chun-hsien (李俊憲) and Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) failed to meet the signature threshold required for the first stage, with 986 signatures founded to be from people already deceased, and more than 600 signatures that were repeated.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
Commenting on the matter, former KMT vice presidential candidate Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) on Facebook on Friday said he has “never seen such a weak opposition party.”
The dismal performance has affected the party’s image and disappointed its supporters, he said.
The DPP is leveraging its advantage as the ruling party in the recall campaign, yet the KMT is not matching the DPP’s efforts, he added.
Jaw said the KMT was being too mentally defense-oriented and called on the party to turn in sufficient signatures for the proposals if it did not wish to become the butt of DPP jokes.
Responding to Jaw’s criticism, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that the party supported the efforts of volunteers during the signature drive despite the commission’s stricter-than-normal review processes.
Chu said the commission is playing favorites, as it has not made an issue out of invalid signatures for proposals to recall KMT legislators.
Such double standards are why the KMT wishes to propose amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) to mandate that all signatures be accompanied by a photocopy of the signatory’s national identification card, he said.
DPP Secretary-General Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) yesterday said that the high percentage of invalid signatures provided by the proposals seeking to recall DPP lawmakers should be considered a violation of the public’s fundamental rights.
The KMT also runs the risk of contravening standing laws, Lin said, adding that the legality of such signature drives should be discussed further.
Lin called on local branches of the commission to launch investigations into the issue, adding that if local branches do not act, they should be investigated for dereliction of duty.
Per the act, recalls have to undergo two stages, the first being the proposal, which requires 1 percent of voters in the electorate the official represents to sign the petition.
In the second petition stage, signatures from 10 percent of voters in the electorate must be collected before a recall vote is held.
The act states that the recall vote must receive approval from one-quarter of the electorate.
Additional reporting by Huang Tzu-yang
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