Independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Tsai Chien-hsing (蔡見興) yesterday won the by-election for the speakership with 17 votes in the second round, snatching the speakership for the pan-green camp.
Of the 41 council members, five abstained, eight voted for the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Dai Te-ming (戴德銘), while the remaining councilors voted for themselves.
Tsai, who has been inclined to side with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) despite his nonpartisan status, attributed his victory to Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) support.
Since Tsai promised to join the DPP if he won the speakership election, Hsieh has rounded up pan-green camp votes for Tsai over the past few days. Sources say Hsieh also dissuaded other candidates such as independent councilor Chang Hsing-wu (張省吾) from contending the speakership.
The pan-blue camp failed to propose a common candidate to rival the speakership with the pan- green camp. Both Dai and the KMT's Lee Fu-hsing (李復興) joined the campaign. Although Dai obtained more support from the pan-blue camp, he nevertheless only won eight votes.
The by-election was called after Kaohsiung City Council speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) was stripped of his post in October after his conviction for vote-buying was upheld by the Supreme Court in late September and ordered to begin his jail sentence.
Chu was sentenced to 22 months in prison in March for buying votes for NT$500 each prior to the December, 2002, Kaohsiung City Council election.
Chu fled the country just before he was scheduled to begin his sentence and now heads the Justice Ministry's most wanted fugitives list with a reward of NT$1 million for his capture.
In November he was sentenced to another 42 months in prison for buying votes for NT$5 million each in the council's speakership election, also in December, 2002.
Kaohsiung prosecutors indicted 34 councilors in the speakership bribery scandal, of which 24 were convicted.
Most of those convicted were expelled by their party caucuses as a punishment. This does not affect their status as councilors, however, and they continue to serve as independents.
Before the speakership bribery scandal, the DPP had four seats, the KMT 12, the People First Party (PFP) had seven and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) had two. After the conviction, the DPP had four seats, the KMT two, the PFP three, and the TSU two.
Tsai, 52, who has served five terms as a Kaohsiung City councilor during the past 20 years, was prosecuted in the bribery scandal but was eventually acquitted. Tsai was originally a KMT member but withdrew from the party when campaigning for his fifth term as a city councilor.
Hsieh said the by-election showed the city councilors' determination to reform the climate of bribery and the image of the Kaohsiung City Council.
"I believe that the by-election was the first speakership election without the intervention of money and violence, which is worthy of praise," said Hsieh when delivering his congratulations to Tsai. "I hope society won't judge us with skepticism any more," he said.
DPP city council caucus leader Chou Lin-wen (
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