Sanchung electoral officer faces grilling

Taipei County prosecutors yesterday summoned Shih Huang-lung (施鍠隆), a chief election worker at the Central Election Committee's No. 475 polling station at Sanchung's Hote Elementary School, together with 13 of his staff over an incident in which Shih took home 95 blank ballots on the evening of the March 20 presidential election.

Shih and his colleagues, who are all teachers at the school, were summoned by Prosecutor Wu Tsung-kwang (吳宗光). Nobody was detained after the interrogation.

"He said that it was all his fault and down to carelessness," said Tseng Chiun-che (曾俊哲), spokesman for the Panchiao District Prosecutors' Office. "However, our investigation is not yet completed."

According to Tseng, 178 blank ballots were left unused after the election on March 20. Shih admitted to taking 95 of them home.

Shih was approached by reporters before being questioned yesterday. He told them it was merely an accident and admitted responsibility. He said he did not discover the blank ballots until he was tidying his desk on March 23.

"There is no politics involved. Although I joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in college, I never took part in any political activities since I began teaching. I can assure you of that," Shih said.

"It is my fault and I was careless. For this, I apologize to the public," he said.

Shih and his colleagues ended the meeting with prosecutors at around noon. However, nearly 40 KMT-People First Party (PFP) alliance supporters, under the urging of PFP Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) and KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), surrounded the Panchiao District Court and the Panchiao District Prosecutors' Office, complaining that Shih and his colleagues should be detained.

"This is obviously cheating," Chou said. "We demand that the prosecutors examine all the ballots, the voters' lists and all the possible evidence at the polling station."

At press time, more people were joining the crowd.