By Esme Yeh / Staff writer, with CNA
Hualien County prosecutors yesterday searched offices and questioned 11 people in relation to accusations that the county government illegally sent representatives to people’s homes to verify their identity on a recall petition.
The controversy arose last month when a Hualien County resident said that a woman who claimed to be from the Hualien City Household Registration Office asked about her information on a recall petition.
The Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it had opened an investigation after receiving evidence reported to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office last month.
The entrance to the Hualien County Civil Affairs Department is pictured yesterday.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
The office said it ordered the Investigation Bureau’s Hualien authorities to inquire about relevant documents from the Hualien County Election Commission and question personnel.
It said it came to the conclusion that Hualien County Civil Affairs Department Director Ming Liang-chen (明良臻) and other officials involved knew that verifying recall petitioners’ identities falls under the authority of local election commissions.
However, the commission did not entrust the Hualien City Household Registration Office to verify recall petitioners’ signatures, the office said.
Therefore, Ming and the other defendants allegedly misused personal data from the register of recall petitioners, while the household registration office was verifying petitioners’ household information as ordered by the commission, it said.
They are suspected of contravening articles 16, 41 and 44 of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the office added.
Prosecutors yesterday ordered the Hualien County Investigation Station to search the county’s Civil Affairs Department and the household registration office to obtain evidence, it said, adding that prosecutors would continue to investigate neutrally and objectively.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday in a statement condemned the governing party for using judicial power to bar local election commissions from verifying recall petitioners’ identities as required by law.
According to Article 79 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), local election commissions should verify recall petitioners’ identities, including their name, ID and whether their signature is authentic, the KMT said, adding that verifying such information with petitioners in person is not prohibited by the act.
Given that the prosecutors’ office is interfering with the county government’s administration, concern has been raised over whether the Democratic Progressive Party is preparing to forge signatures in second-stage recall petitions and threatening local election commissions not to verify the signatures, the KMT said.
That would undermine the executive branch’s power to exercise its public authority and the nation’s legal system, it said, calling on the government not to bar public servants from enforcing the law to protect civil rights.
