The Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted 11 members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for forging more than 1,900 signatures in a petition to recall Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Mei-hui (王美惠).
Chang Chia-ming (張嘉銘), secretary-general of the KMT's Chiayi City branch, as well as 10 others from the branch, were charged with forgery and the illegal use of personal data, the office said in a statement.
Two volunteers were given deferred prosecution for one year and required to pay a NT$50,000 fine, while the initiator of the recall petition, surnamed Chen (陳), was not indicted, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The suspects are alleged to have logged into the KMT party member database and downloaded the personal information of party members registered in Chiayi City in January last year, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 24 last year, Chang convened a meeting with party branch officials, during which party member data and recall petition forms were distributed, prosecutors said, adding that the attendees then allegedly forged the signatures of party members.
Chen, unaware of the forgery, subsequently submitted 2,505 recall petitions to the Central Election Commission, exceeding the required threshold of 2,159 signatures, prosecutors said.
The case came to light after it was reported to prosecutors that a deceased person's personal information had been misused, they said, adding that several other party members later came forward with similar complaints.
An investigation found that the handwriting on approximately 1,900 petition forms matched that of the indicted individuals, prosecutors said.
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