President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will attend a hearing at the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office next Wednesday to serve as a witness in a vote-buying investigation.
"President Chen has received the subpoena, which asks the president to attend the closed-door interrogation on Jan. 14 at 9:30am," Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said.
"The president immediately decided to cancel all activities in his original schedule for that day and will be present at the interrogation," Huang said.
On Tuesday, Hualien prosecutor Lee Tzu-chun (李子春) issued a subpoena to Chen in the president's capacity as the DPP chairman, ordering him to assist in the investigation into a campaign promise made by the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) candidate for the Hualien County commissioner by-election You Ying-lung (游盈隆).
You said on July 27 last year that the DPP would provide a monthly stipend to Aboriginal communities leaders if he won the election.
"Though President Chen only served as a campaigner and had no connection to any particular campaign promise, he will do what he is asked of by the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office," Huang said.
Huang also read a statement from the Presidential Office stating that during the by-election Chen had carried out his presidential duties in the correct and proper manner.
The summons is the first ever delivered to a head of state in Taiwan.
"Since the subpoena ... is a legitimate procedure, President Chen, who is a firm advocate of judicial reform, is willing to show his respect to the Hualien District Prosecutors' Office," Presidential Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said at a press conference.
"We respect the legal system and will honor our obligation to abide by the rules," Chiou said. "But this do not mean we see the subpoena as a reasonable move [by the prosecutors' office."]
Chiou refused to comment on whether the subpoena would affect the presidential election campaign, saying that such an unexpected development was not on the DPP's campaign schedule and therefore it was difficult to make an evaluation.
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