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.