A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should apologize for its former "black gold" politics practices after the father of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Chao Yu-chu (
DPP Legislator Charles Chiang (
Chiang yesterday held a press conference with a resident of Changhua County who had successfully exposed a KMT vote-buying scam in a previous election.
More than 200 people were implicated in the ensuing scandal.
"Chao spoke the truth about KMT corruption. Instead of admitting to the wrongdoings, the party said it never asked elementary school heads to bribe people. Lien should apologize to the public," Chiang said.
Chao had been an elementary school principal for 20 years. He retired from the Ta Chiou Elementary School in Tainan County in February last year. His son Chao Chien-ming (
Speaking at the establishment of a local support group for Chen's reelection bid on Thursday, Chao said that he had been forced to join the KMT before he could be appointed as the school's principal.
He said that, during elections, local elementary school principals were asked to become "vote-buying captains" to deliver bribes for the KMT's candidates, and were allowed to keep any money that was not spent.
Chao said the bribe money usually came from the KMT's headquarters or the KMT-dominated reserve military system.
"I joined the KMT to escape poverty. I've lost my dignity as a school principal and I shouldn't have done so," Chao said.
He said he is not a KMT member anymore.
Chao said that, during the 2000 presidential election, the KMT did not give bribe money directly to local vote captains, but did it by means of subsidies to elementary school heads.
In response to the accusations, KMT spokesperson Alex Tsai (
The KMT's Tainan County chap-ter director, Shen Jung-feng (沈榮鋒), filed a libel suit against Chao on Friday, and the Tainan Prosecutors' Office has decided to summon him for questioning soon.
Shen denied that the KMT had ever asked headmasters to buy votes.
Chao Chung-yueh (趙中岳), deputy director of the Tainan Prosecutors' Office, yesterday said pro-secutors would investigate Chao's claims about the presidential election in 2000.
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