Prosecutors Probe Lawmaker Recall Efforts Over Fraudulent Signature Concerns

Prosecutors have questioned people involved in Taiwan's mass lawmaker recall campaign, as concerns arise over the validity of petition signatures.

Transcript

00:00Authenticity is the name of the game in Taiwan's mass legislator recall movement.

00:10Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Kuomintang

00:15are locked in a tense campaign to remove each other's lawmakers.

00:20Part of that process involves collecting signatures from the public to officially petition the

00:26government to initiate a vote to remove legislators from office.

00:31But it seems authorities have found problems with the validity of some of those signatures.

00:37In the past two days, prosecutors have questioned several people connected to the KMT

00:42over allegedly fraudulent signatures on petitions. Among them are members of the party's youth league.

00:49This comes after allegations that the names of deceased people have showed up on recall

00:55petitions targeting DPP lawmakers, including one against the party's legislative caucus

01:00secretary general Wu Ziyao. Wu has attributed blame to KMT leadership, including party chair Eric Zhu.

01:14One of the people brought in for questioning works for KMT legislator Luo Zixiang's office. Luo,

01:21who is also targeted in the mass-recall campaign, said the investigation was politically motivated.

01:28This saga seems far from over. According to the Central Election Commission, or CEC,

01:36of the 61 recall petitions it received, 41 potentially contain falsified, or the so-called ghost signatures.

01:59It has reported all of them to prosecutors for further probing. When asked about this,

02:05CEC Chair Li Jinyong didn't reveal if those are campaigns against the KMT or the DPP,

02:12but emphasized the commission has treated all recall petitions equally.

02:16The rest, Li said, the CEC will leave up two judicial authorities.

02:32Klein Wang and Leslie Liao for Taiwan Plus.