Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) clashed face to face with his KMT opponent in the mayoral election yesterday over allegations concerning the Kaohsiung Ammonium Sulfate Co.
Hsieh has accused former mayor Wu Den-yi (
"Huang and Wu are trying to hinder my election by confusing right and wrong, that's why I am accusing them," Hsieh said.
Huang and Wu filed a lawsuit against Hsieh on Sunday, accusing him of violating election laws by spreading rumors unfavorable to Huang's campaign.
Hsieh filed a counter-lawsuit yesterday against the two.
Huang and Hsieh agreed to confront each other about the allegations yesterday outside the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, where the two had been interviewed about the case.
The confrontation, however, failed to shed much light on the matter, with each side repeating the allegations.
Huang and Wu, surrounded by supporters, arrived first and told their version of story to the media.
Shortly after, a DPP city councilor candidate, Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成), used a loud speaker to disrupt Huang and Wu while they were speaking and an argument ensued.
When Hsieh arrived, he accused Huang and Wu of playing suspicious roles in approving the rezoning of the land.
Wu at first tried to speak, but was cut off by Hsieh, who said it was a matter for only the two candidates to discuss. Wu claimed Hsieh did not want him to speak because he was worried about what he might say.
The allegations have become focused on the number of approval stamps the rezoning application received and when it got them.
Hsieh said Wu and Huang's administration approved the case with extraordinary efficiency, "putting as many as 40 stamps on the document just two days before the hand-over of the mayoralty" in December 1998.
Huang's camp produced a copy of the document on Sunday, showing that it had received "14 stamps in three days" rather than "40 in a day."
Yesterday, Wu maintained that consideration of the case had not been rushed, having taken more than three years.
Hsieh asked why Huang's stamp appeared on the application rather than that of another former deputy mayor under Wu, Lin Chung-sen (林中森), who was in charge of land administration affairs.
"Lin knew there was problem with the case so he did not dare stamp it, but Huang did," Hsieh said.
Both sides agree that the land was improperly dealt with but are divided over in who's term the scandal was created.
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