Courts Become New Battleground in Taiwan's Recall Saga

TaiwanPlus News

As civic groups move to recall legislators from Taiwan's two biggest political parties, both sides have become embroiled in legal battles over the validity of petition signatures.

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00:00Recall movements are taking aim at lawmakers from Taiwan's two biggest

00:05political parties, the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang.

00:08Civic groups are looking to take down legislators from both parties over

00:13differences in the country's legislature. The opposition Kuomintang, in coalition

00:17with the smaller Taiwan People's Party, holds a slight majority over the ruling

00:21DPP in Taiwan's chamber. The impasse has caused deadlocks over everything from

00:27the country's judiciary to the annual budget. Taiwan's recall laws require

00:31voters to sign petitions to progress past each stage. The KMT has landed

00:36itself in legal trouble over recall petition efforts. Last week, authorities

00:41in the southern city of Tainan detained representatives from a KMT branch office

00:45on suspicion of forgery after carrying out an extensive search. They

00:50investigated allegations that some signatures supporting the KMT were

00:54fraudulent.

01:14On the other side, the KMT says a civic group targeting one of their legislators is

01:18collecting fraudulent signatures. A group of KMT lawmakers have filed a suit

01:23against the civic group, calling on Taipei prosecutors to investigate their

01:27petition efforts. The KMT's argument is that the DPP is using its influence as

01:32ruling party to manipulate the recalls.

01:53The civic group the KMT is targeting says it's followed all relevant laws.

02:03These cases are still pending, but it shows just how heated Taiwan's recall

02:08movement is getting. With the legislature at stake, both parties are

02:12using any means at their disposal to fight. Joseph Wu and Leslie Liao for

02:17Taiwan Plus.

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