Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday lashed out at party councilors who did not vote along party lines in elections for local council speakers, calling them “a shame to democracy,” while apologizing to the party’s supporters.
“Those [councilors] who sold their votes for money are a shame to democracy,” Tsai said in a message on Facebook. “The results of the local council speaker elections are heartbreaking and regrettable, and I would like to apologize to our supporters for them.”
Tsai said that staying clean is one of the DPP’s core values and therefore anyone who betrays those values for personal gain would hurt the feelings and expectations of its supporters, adding that the party “would not tolerate such behavior.”
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
Tsai was referring to several city councilors in Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan who did not follow the party’s direction to vote for its own nominees for speaker and deputy speaker positions, resulting in the DPP’s loss of the speaker’s position in Tainan.
In a press conference at DPP headquarters, party spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said that the five DPP councilors in Tainan and one in Kaohsiung who failed to vote with the party would be referred to the Central Disciplinary Committee.
“The committee might meet tomorrow or on Tuesday next week to handle the cases,” Hsu said. “These councilors will most likely have their party membership revoked.”
In related news, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday announced that it has revoked New Taipei City Councilor Chang Chin-ting’s (張晉婷) membership of the party, as she failed to follow the party’s decision to support the DPP nominee for the New Taipei City Council speakership on Thursday.
“There have been rumors that [the KMT] might have paid each city councilor NT$50 million [US$1.57 million] per vote,” TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) told a news conference at the party’s headquarters yesterday. “We hereby would like to call on the judiciary to launch a probe.”
Huang added that the TSU has already revoked Chang’s party membership.
TSU Secretary-General Lin Chi-chia (林志嘉) said that he went to the New Taipei City Council on Thursday morning, where he met with Chang and DPP city councilors Chen Yung-fu (陳永福) and Chen Wen-chih (陳文治), who paired up in the speaker and deputy speaker elections.
“I was there to make sure that Chang would cast her votes for the two and she said there would not be any problem,” Lin said.
After Chen Yung-fu failed to be elected speaker, the TSU and DPP immediately launched a joint investigation and found that it was Chang who did not follow voting directions.
“She has admitted that she did not vote for Chen Yung-fu,” Lin said.
Lin said he communicated with Chang through a third person, because Chang did not respond to his request to speak with her.
“Chairman Huang said that what Chang did is unacceptable and thus we have decided to revoke her party membership,” Lin said. “We actually feel that we have been deceived.”
Separately, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) denied media speculation that he might have been involved in vote buying over the New Taipei City Council speaker election, urging the judiciary to investigate the situation.
In related news, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said it was illegal for DPP councilors to show their ballots before putting them into the ballot box, adding that it would launch an investigation.
DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) slammed the prosecutors for “focusing on the wrong issue,” and urged them to look into the allegations of vote-buying instead.
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