Five people affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), including senior staff from the party’s Taipei branch, were indicted yesterday for allegedly forging thousands of signatures to recall two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.
Those indicted include KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Chin-ru (黃呂錦茹), secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿) and secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文), the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said in a news release.
Prosecutors said the three were responsible for fabricating 5,211 signature forms — 2,537 related to the recall of DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) and 2,674 for DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) — with forged entries accounting for 96 percent and 94 percent of the forms, respectively.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The office has requested heavy sentences, citing a lack of remorse and the defendants’ role in “undermining the country’s democratic foundations.”
Prosecutors also indicted Lai Yi-jen (賴苡任), identified as the organizer of the recall campaign targeting Rosalia Wu, and Chen Kuei-hsun (陳奎勳), an executive at the KMT’s fourth district office in Taipei.
In addition, 15 other KMT staffers and volunteers admitted their involvement and were granted deferred prosecution. They include Man Chih-kang (滿志剛), Liu Ssu-yin (劉思吟), Lin Jui (林叡) and Yeh Li-chin (葉麗琴), prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors declined to indict several others, including KMT Taipei City Councilor Chang Szu-kang (張斯綱) and recall campaigners Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Chang Ko-chin (張克晉).
The investigation began on April 14 after reports that recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi had submitted forged proposer forms, prosecutors said.
Shortly afterward, Huang, Chu and Yao were detained and held incommunicado, they said.
The office said the trio “fabricated large volumes of name lists in a short period to advance political aims,” rather than lawfully collecting signatures.
Taiwan is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of recall vote campaigns, with supporters of the DPP and KMT seeking to unseat lawmakers from the opposite side of the political aisle.
The indictments in Taipei are part of several judicial actions under way across the country, with KMT members and affiliated advocates also facing allegations of recall vote campaign irregularities in New Taipei City, Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other municipalities.
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