TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two KMT party members who proposed recall petitions targeting DPP legislators in Tainan have been arrested by prosecutors on suspicion of forging documents. 

Investigators searched the KMT party headquarters in Tainan City on Thursday and questioned five party members involved in campaigning for the recall of DPP legislators Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) and Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), reported TVBS. On Friday morning, two men, surnamed Chuang (莊) and Liu (劉), were arrested for possibly breaching the Personal Data Protection Act. 

Reports indicate that one of the KMT members questioned by police may have tipped off prosecutors to the illegal use of personal information in collecting signatures for the recall campaigns. Prosecutors argue the suspects tried to circumvent the regulations of the Central Election Commission unlawfully, reported CNA. 

Prosecutors seized local party member lists during their search, and also searched Chuang’s residence. They found that some signatures on the recall petition appeared to have been forged and that some signatories were no longer living, per TVBS.  

The judge agreed that the suspects were at risk of colluding with other potential suspects to destroy or alter key evidence, and ordered them to be detained without visitation rights. 

Lin Chun-hsien and Wang Ting-yu, the DPP legislators who were targeted for recall, have reportedly filed lawsuits in related cases. The local party leader of the DPP in Tainan City, Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), called on the local chair of the KMT, Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) to address the allegations of fraud and forgery. 

In response, Hsieh issued a statement denouncing the prosecutors. He pledged that the party would move forward with the second stage of the recall despite the allegations of criminal activity.