Police yesterday vowed to provide protection for citizen group leader Wu Bo-wei (吳柏瑋) and volunteers in New Taipei City collecting signatures to recall a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker, after they allegedly received death threats.
National Police Agency Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) confirmed the threats targeting Wu and activists campaigning to oust KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才), elected from New Taipei City’s 11th electoral constituency including Sindian (新店), Shenkeng (深坑), Shiding (石碇), Pinglin (坪林) and Wulai (烏來) districts.
“We shall not permit such intimidation targeting people collecting signatures,” Chang said, adding that police must offer protection for people who are threatened and set up communication channels to respond swiftly to possible incidents.
Photo courtesy of the civic group for recalling Yen Kuan-heng
‘NO SUICIDE’ NOTE
Wu, accompanied by volunteers and pan-green politicians, yesterday said the signature drive targeting Lo reached second-stage threshold and submitted the signatures to a Central Election Commission office in New Taipei City.
Campaign spokeswoman Chi Chi (琪琪) said they had earlier submitted the signatures they collected, but election officials disqualified some of them.
Chi said they needed 564 more signatures and collected 2,035 additional signatures.
Wu said he did not leave his home in the past week and worked from there, as he was scared after receiving death threats.
He also said he issued a “no suicide” note to state that he was targeted by gangsters.
TAICHUNG PETITION
Meanwhile, volunteers in Taichung taking part in signature drives to recall KMT legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) from the city’s second, third and eight electoral constituencies respectively, were pushing yesterday to meet the second-stage threshold before tomorrow’s deadline.
They said they needed to collect additional signatures after they had earlier submitted signatures, but the local Central Election Commission office annulled some of them, giving the campaign extra time for its signature drive.
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