The rotten prevail in council elections

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won 15 out of 23 positions in yesterday's city and county council speakership elections, while the eight remaining posts went to independents.

In the deputy speakership races, the KMT won 14, independent councilors gained eight posts and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won just one.

The results were not without controversy as several of the winners have already been charged with or are suspected of involvement in corruption or vote-buying.

The Ministry of Justice said in a press statement that prosecutors nationwide had received many tips about vote-buying, and they would continue to probe the matter.

The re-elected speaker of the Tainan County Council, Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), a KMT member, has been indicted for bribery and theft relating to his involvement in illegal quarrying.

Wu is alleged to have earned more than NT$1 billion (US$30.3 million) selling sand illegally quarried from the Tsengwen River (曾文溪) to construction companies.

Re-elected Changhua County Council Speaker Pai Hung-shen (白鴻森), also of the KMT, has been indicted for misappropriating around NT$1.5 million to pay off friends and supporters.

Re-elected Kaohsiung County Council Speaker Hsu Fu-sen (許福森), of the KMT, has a case pending against him in the Kaohsiung District Court. Hsu is charged with taking bribes and helping several unlicensed industrial waste handlers to secure waste disposal contracts. He is also charged with running a firm that dumped waste illegally.

Several Kaohsiung prosecutors appeared at the offices of the Kaohsiung County Council yesterday to supervise the election.

The city's prosecutors raided an illegal gambling house on Saturday night that was suspected of being used to generate funds for Hsu's speakership campaign.

Prosecutors suspect Hsu of offering councilors bribes ranging from NT$500,000 to NT$1 million in exchange for votes.

Hsu, Pai and Wu are all suspected of maintaining ties with gangsters.

Independent Tainan City Council Speaker Huang Yu-wen (黃郁文), who was also re-elected yesterday, has been indicted for bribery, blackmail and coercion.

Huang allegedly received more than NT$100 million from Yiching Construction to arrange for the firm to win a contract in the Heshunliao (何順寮) agricultural zone.

Early yesterday morning the Tainan District Court issued an arrest warrant for KMT Tainan County Councilor Chen Tsung-hsing (陳宗興), a candidate for the deputy speakership, for paying bribes to councilors in exchange for votes.

Chen's detention forced KMT Councilor Chou Szu-hai (周賜海) to hurriedly enter the deputy speaker's election, which he subsequently won.

"We learned that Chen paid 22 councilors amounts ranging from NT$800,000 to NT$1 million. We are hoping that the councilors can report the matter to prosecutors voluntarily," said Yen Jung-sung (顏榮松), head of the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office, as he supervised the elections yesterday.

Yen applied for permission to detain Chen late on Tuesday night, and the court agreed to his request early yesterday morning.

Independent Taitung County Councilor Lin Fu-hsiung (林富雄) yesterday asked all county councilors to swear that they had never received bribes from speakership and vice speakership candidates.

His suggestion sparked a huge quarrel on the floor of the council.

Taitung County Councilor Li Chin-huei (李錦慧) of the KMT eventually won that speakership race.