Taichung prosecutors have indicted 34 workers from the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Taichung chapter for allegedly falsifying documents in an attempt to recall two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office in a statement yesterday said the individuals forged 4,258 signatures after the chapter’s decision in January to launch recall vote petitions against Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) and Ho Hsin- chun (何欣純).
The 34 have been charged with forgery and contraventions of the Personal Data Protection Act (電腦處理個人資料保護法).
Photo: CNA
Four of them also face charges of breaching the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), including senior officials Wu Kang-lung (伍康龍) and Chen Chien-feng (陳劍鋒), who were allegedly the masterminds behind the operation.
Prosecutors have requested severe penalties for Wu and Chen, saying that they deleted chat records and did not plead guilty until the final stage of the investigation.
The case is part of an ongoing probe into alleged falsification in recall petitions across the country.
The KMT, the largest opposition party, has seen about 100 chapter workers indicted in the widening investigation, including 12 from its Yilan County chapter and 31 from New Taipei City.
On Friday last week, the Central Election Commission announced a list of recall votes scheduled for July 26, involving 24 KMT lawmakers, as well as suspended Hsinchu City Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), a former member of the Taiwan People’s Party.
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