KMT Yilan official receives 18 months for recall campaign fraud

Taipei, July 14 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) Yilan chapter head, Lin Ming-chang (林明昌), was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Tuesday for forging signatures during a 2025 recall campaign against Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇).

The Yilan District Court sentenced Lin for violating Article 41 of the Personal Data Protection Act regarding the illegal use of personal data by a non-government agency.

The ruling can be appealed.

Yilan prosecutors indicted Lin and 11 others in June last year, revealing that the party had fabricated over 4,000 false signatures for the recall campaign.

Lin collaborated with former party official Yu Ling-chieh (俞凌傑) and incumbent official Chen Chien-feng (陳堅豐), mobilizing nine local staff to forge signatures at the party chapter office from Jan. 23-24 last year, just ahead of the submission deadline.

Of the 4,206 signatures submitted to the Central Election Commission, 1,106 were found to have been forged by party staff using a membership roster, according to prosecutors.

The court sentenced Yu to 16 months in prison, suspended for four years. During this probation period, Yu will be subject to protective supervision, pay NT$100,000 (US$3,108) to the public treasury, and perform 60 hours of community service.

Chen was sentenced to one year and two months in prison, also suspended for four years. Under the ruling he was placed under protective supervision will pay NT$80,000 to the public treasury, and perform 60 hours of community service.

The other nine defendants were sentenced to between six months and one year in prison, all with suspended sentences, and are required to pay NT$30,000 or NT$50,000 to the public treasury, as well as perform 40 or 50 hours of community service.