The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office today searched the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung city chapter office and other locations and took away at least eight KMT staffers on suspicion of forged documents being used in recall campaigns.
Recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislators Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) and Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純), and KMT Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔) and Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪) are suspected to have involved the use of signatures from deceased people, according to local media.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said in a press release today that they are investigating recall campaigns targeting the five legislators regarding allegations of violating the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and using forged signatures after receiving reports from the Central Election Commission (CEC).
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Eight locations, including residences, offices and local branches of a political party, have been searched today, with more than ten people, including suspects and witnesses, being questioned, prosecutors said.
KMT Taichung chapter director Yen Wen-cheng (顏文正) confirmed the search took place today and said the party is cooperating with the investigation.
Wu Kang-lung (伍康龍), Yang Ta-wei (楊大緯) and Chen Chien-feng (陳建鋒), secretary-generals representing the first, second and third KMT Taichung city party committees respectively, were taken away.
Five other staffers were taken away, Taiping District (太平) director Wang Chung-hui (王忠輝), deputy director Cheng Yi-chuan (程翌全), Fengyuan District (豐原) director Yu Chueh-an (余爵安), Tanya District (潭雅) director Chiu Shih-yi (邱仕誼) and Dali District (大里) director Hung Li-hsiang (洪麗香).
Volunteers of civil groups leading recall campaigns targeting the three KMT Legislators, Yen, Liao and Huang, were also reportedly summoned for questioning.
Regarding the campaign targeting Tsai, the number of forged signatures made up more than half of the total, he said.
Tsai called on the prosecutors’ office and the CEC to clarify and investigate the issue given how unreasonable the situation is, he said.
In the petition against Ho, there were 66 signatures from deceased people, she said, adding that she has faith in the judicial process’ ability to uncover the truth.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) did not comment on the matter when asked by media today, only saying “thank you.”
The recall conveners are inexperienced and so some flaws were expected, Yen said.
However, the signatures were collected in person, he added.
In an official statement, the KMT Taichung branch said that the judicial process should remain fact-based and impartial, calling on investigators to act fairly and avoid political persecution.
The party will continue to monitor the situation, safeguard justice and work with other like-minded people to defend the rule of law and civil rights.
DPP Taichung City Councilor Wang Li-jen (王立任) said that there should be an investigation if there are suspicions of fraud, expressing confidence that if the accused are innocent they would be cleared.
This is similar to KMT tactics in other alleged recall forgery cases in other counties, he added.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS