KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Chen said at a weekly meeting of the Central Standing Committee of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in his capacity as party chairman, that Kaohsiung councilors who sold their votes during the recent election for the city council speaker should give up their seats in order to qualify for immunity from prosecution and that simply "admitting their guilt and handing back the bribe money would be insufficient to atone for their acts."
"We share the same views as President Chen," Lien said, adding that the KMT central standing committee will urge the party's members in the Kaohsiung City Council involved in the vote-buying scandal to resign from their posts even if they are exempted from prosecution.
PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The KMT originally held 12 seats in the Kaohsiung city council and seven KMT councilors are suspected of having accepted bribes to vote for Chu An-hsiung (
The seven councilors took the initiative to renounce their KMT memberships Monday to "avoid bringing further trouble to the party."
Under the existing election regulations, councilors who are guilty of bribery can keep their seats unless they are already in prison.
Chen said such regulations do not live up to the public's expectation for clean politics.
Following Chen's lead, Lien also urged all Kaohsiung city councilors involved in the vote-buying scandal, regardless of their party affiliation, to quit their posts and pave the way for re-elections to fill their seats.
The DPP has expelled Wang Wen-cheng (王文正), director of the Kaohsiung City Government's Civil Affairs Bureau, and six of its members on the Kaohsiung City Council, for their involvement in the scandal.
Moreover, the party has formed a special task force to probe the matter. The DPP has also vowed to use public pressure to force those city councilors to quit if they refuse to accept Chen's "suggestion."
Newly elected Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu and his wife have been held incommunicado since Dec. 30 on suspicion of election bribery and possible siphoning off of money from Chu's embattled An Feng Group.
Nineteen city councilors have given themselves up to prosecutors and a sum of NT$25 million (US$718,390) bribes has been turned in.
Meanwhile, independent councilors have now become the Kaohsiung City Council's largest group, holding 23 of the 44 seats.
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