The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is feigning ignorance of its members’ wrongdoing by demanding an investigation into the judiciary over allegations of signature fraud in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, DPP Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said yesterday.
“KMT officials have accused the judiciary of unfairly targeting the party so as to shift the focus away from signature forgery cases in its recall petition drive. The KMT is trying to mislead the public and framing it as the ruling party’s political manipulation of the judiciary,” Chuang said.
Preliminary investigations by judicial authorities have found many cases of alleged forgery, signature fraud, and instances of one individual signing for many people in the KMT’s effort to recall DPP legislators, Chuang said when questioning Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙).
Photo: Taipei Times
“KMT members are being lazy. Instead of doing real work out on the street asking people to sign the recall petition, they copied names from lists of party members, which even include members who are deceased,” he said.
“KMT leaders should take responsibility for the forgeries and other breaches of the law in the recall drive, but they instead demand that President William Lai (賴清德) step down over the judicial investigation into these cases. They are talking like deranged people, as it was not Lai who instructed KMT members to commit fraud and forge signatures,” Chuang said.
Separately, Taiwan Forever Society director Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) also called out the hypocrisy of KMT leaders in calling for supporters to attend a rally on Saturday to protest against the DPP government, which the KMT has even titled: “Oppose Green Communists, Fight Dictatorship.”
“KMT officials are insulting everyone by saying Taiwan is now a dictatorship, but the rest of the world knows that the true dictatorship is in China. The KMT dare not criticize China and it is afraid of urging people to fight Chinese dictatorship,” Huang said.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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