Officials of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office yesterday raided 40 different locations yesterday searching for evidence of vote-buying in the election of Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄).
During the searches some NT$2 million in cash was found in the residence of DPP council caucus whip Jan Yung-lung (
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Jan denied last night that the money found at his residence had any connection with vote buying.
Fourteen prosecutors and more than one hundred officials from the prosecutors' office searched Chu's residence, his An Feng Metal Company (
Written notes believed to contain details of the vote-buying were found in Chu's residence, while the accounts of An Feng were seized for examination in yesterday's search.
Chu, an independent city councilor, was elected as the council's speaker Wednesday with 25 votes from KMT, PFP, and independent councilors. He, however, has been suspected of buying votes for his speakership campaign.
The search was launched at 5:30pm yesterday, after Chu held a press conference stressing his innocence and that of the 25 councilors who voted for him.
Chu, however, made no comment on the result of the searches last night.
Political parties, including the DPP and KMT, both expressed their support for the investigation and appealed to their party members to cooperate with prosecutors.
Earlier yesterday, Chu demanded evidence from those politicians who had accused him of involvement in vote-buying for the speakership election and denounced his background of black-gold in a press conference.
"I am sorry for the 25 councilors who voted for me. They are innocent. Those people who accused me of vote-buying should prove it," Chu said.
"I am not a member of any [criminal] gang. How can they denounce me as a black-gold operator?" he said.
In yesterday's conference, Chu said that he was elected because of the irreconcilable conflicts between the political parties.
"High-ranking party officials living in Taipei [without knowing anything of the local society], are unsatisfied with the election result. They blame everything but themselves, despite this [his election as an independent] being the best result of this election," he said, reacting to the KMT and PFP's attempt to unseat him.
Political commentators yesterday said that Chu's election and the vote-buying allegations were just another example of local councils' vote-buying culture.
"This has been a tradition for the councilors. They need to get back the money they spent on their election campaigns from the speakership election," said Chen Li-kan (
"That's why politicians like the KMT's James Chen (
Chen was the director of the KMT's Organizational Affairs Department. He resigned on Thursday to take responsibility for the speakership election fiasco.
The speaker's position can be a lucrative one because the speaker automatically becomes a member of the city's Urban Planning Commission, a small body which administers city zoning. Huge sums of money can be made by rezoning farmland for commercial use.
Also see stories:
KMT seeks revision to oust Chu
Chu An-hsiung to face hearing in early January
Investigators find lavish bribery tab
The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is to tighten rules for candidates running for public office, requiring them to declare that they do not hold a Chinese household registration or passport, and that they possess no other foreign citizenship. The requirement was set out in a draft amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法 ) released by the ministry on Thursday. Under the proposal, candidates would need to make the declaration when submitting their registration forms, which would be published in the official election bulletin. The move follows the removal of several elected officials who were
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Friday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US