Chiayi city: The Chiayi District Prosecutors Office on Monday indicted 11 members of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) for forging more than 1,900 signatures on a petition to recall ruling Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Mei-hui.

According to Focus Taiwan, the individuals indicted include Chang Chia-ming, the secretary-general of the KMT's Chiayi City branch, along with 10 others from the branch. They were charged with forgery and illegal use of personal data as detailed in a news release by the office.

Meanwhile, two volunteers received deferred prosecution for one year and were required to pay a NT$50,000 (US$1,590) fine. The initiator of the recall petition, identified only by the surname Chen, was not indicted.

Prosecutors allege that the accused accessed the KMT party member database to download personal information of party members registered in Chiayi City in January 2025. On January 24, Chang convened a meeting with party branch officials, during which personal data and recall petition forms were distributed, leading to the alleged forgery of signatures.

Chen, unaware of the forgery, submitted 2,505 recall petitions to the Central Election Commission, surpassing the required threshold of 2,159 signatures. The case emerged after family members of a deceased individual reported the misuse of personal information. Other party members also came forward with similar complaints.

Further investigation revealed that the handwriting on approximately 1,900 petition forms matched that of the indicted individuals, prosecutors stated.