Taipei, April 28 (CNA) The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party on Monday accused President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) of being a “dictator” for “directing prosecutors” in ongoing probes looking into allegations of forgery in recall campaigns targeting ruling party lawmakers.
“I had hoped that with only 22 days remaining (until Lai has served one year as president) that he would ‘lay down the hatchet,'” Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu said at a news conference at KMT headquarters.
“However, it seems that the only word in Lai’s lexicon is ‘fight’ — incessantly fighting and attacking opposition parties.”
Chu’s remarks came after New Taipei prosecutors raided the KMT’s New Taipei chapter and the residences of three staff members on Monday morning.
The three staffers were later taken in for questioning in connection with allegedly falsifying signatures in the recall campaign.
As of Monday, several officials at the KMT’s Taipei, Keelung and New Taipei chapters have been questioned or detained for potentially being involved in using dead people’s signatures in recall motions targeting DPP lawmakers.
Such campaigns require the signatures of 1 percent of all eligible voters in a constituency to be initiated and 10 times that number for a recall vote to be held.
April 28: 3 KMT staffers brought in for questioning over recall signatures
The recall fracas was started by the DPP, with legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) calling in early January to use recall campaigns to oust KMT lawmakers.
KMT lawmakers currently hold a narrow plurality in the 113-seat Legislature and have teamed up with Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers to form an opposition majority of 62-51 seats that has repeatedly challenged the Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
Recall efforts have since been initiated to remove 34 KMT lawmakers from office, and, in a tit-for-tat move, KMT supporters then launched recall campaigns targeting 15 DPP lawmakers.
The motions are in the second-stage signature collection process and must meet the legal threshold of 10 percent of all eligible voters in a constituency for a recall vote to be held.
Chu said Monday that he has instructed all publicly elected KMT county and city councilors, township mayors, and borough chiefs to do their best to assist in collecting signatures from constituents to ensure the recall votes against DPP lawmakers will pass.
The contributions by each KMT public servant will be logged and published and will affect their job performance review, Chu said.
He compared the investigators probing recall motions targeting DPP lawmakers to members of the Gestapo when asked about a poll published Monday by online news outlet “m.my-formosa.com.tw” that showed 59.3 percent of people believe prosecutors had been “selective in their investigations.”
“I believe that [if] these ‘Eastern depot’ [secret police] and Gestapo continue to pounce and ignore the principle of proportionality and judicial justice, it will trigger a backlash fueled by civic power on the dictator, Lai Ching-te,” Chu said.
April 26: KMT vows to seek Lai recall after May 20 at large Taipei rally
In response, DPP spokesperson Han Ying (韓瑩) said assertions that Lai had personally intervened in the judiciary were nothing but unfounded accusations and were “politically motivated.”
The KMT last year sponsored bills to amend the Public Officials Election and Recall Act to stiffen identity checks of constituents seconding a recall motion in its initiation process.
However, the KMT has broken the rule it passed by supplying forged signatures of dead people and even held a mass rally defending its actions, Han said.
Now, it is doubling down on its mistakes by pledging an all-out effort to recall DPP lawmakers, she added.
“The DPP demands that Chu apologize for instigating the string of escapades,” Han said.
