Pro-localization groups and the “One Side, One Country” political group plan to hold two meetings to explain why they have launched a signature drive asking that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) be pardoned, Taiwan Hakka Society chairman Chang Yeh-shen (張葉森) said yesterday.

The petition asks President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to exercise his presidential prerogative to pardon Chen, who is in Taipei Prison serving a 17-and-a-half year jail sentence for embezzlement.