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Zanadau's Su says Hsueh of Sunny Bank bought votes

`Su said she would hand in the documents this morning.'

Speculation of vote-buying in the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) legislative primary was rife yesterday, with Zanadau majority shareholder Su Hui-chen (蘇惠珍) accusing Sunny Bank chairwoman Hsueh Ling (薛凌) of involvement in election bribery.

Su said she had proof that Hsueh extended loans to a fellow DPP lawmaker in exchange for party members' vote in the primary elections.

Su, a former DPP member, said she had helped buy votes for Hsueh's husband, DPP Legislator Chen Sheng-hung (陳勝宏), three years ago and that this time the couple had used the same method of granting excess loans as a bribe.

Su accused Hsueh of breach of trust for extending excess loans amounting to hundreds of millions of NT dollars through Sunny Bank to DPP Legislator Lin Chin-hsing (林進興) to buy a house in Kaohsiung for use as a campaign office in 2001.

Lin sold the house back to Sunny Bank in 2002. Su said Lin also charged the bank an amount of rent that was unreasonable.

"Is that the way Hsueh said she has been providing service to her supporters?

How does this enable her to get the top place on the legislator-at-large candidates list?" Su said.

She said she was prompted to disclose Hsueh's vote-buying behavior because Hsueh, Chen and Lin recently called a press conference to dismiss any rumors of involvement in vote-buying.

"They should have felt ashamed of themselves. They put on a huge press conference fanfare to deliver their false arguments. That's just way too arrogant!" Su said.

In response to Su's accusations, DPP headquarters said that any accusation should be based on facts, and the party could only start the investigation once written documents detailing evidence of the fraud were presented.

Su said she would hand in the documents, consisting of records of excess loans between Lin and Sunny Bank, this morning.

Meanwhile, Su yesterday said she would request DPP headquarters to grant secret witness rights to party members who would testify against Hsueh under the condition of anonymity and exemption from party discipline.

Both Hsueh and Lin yesterday refuted Su's allegations. Lin said he did not take loans from Sunny Bank, while Hsueh said the accusation was merely Su retaliating about an election dispute three years ago.

Cabinet

Meanwhile, the Cabinet is considering letting the Central Election Commission (CEC) hold primaries for political parties in a bid to curb vote-buying, Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced yesterday.

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea to have an independent government entity handle the matter impartially and fairly," Yu said.

Yu made the remark yesterday afternoon in response to one of the questions filed by the media during a question-and-answer session at a government tea party.

According to Yu, the Ministry of the Interior and the commission have been working on amending existing laws to authorize the commission to hold primaries.

Yu also pledged to solicit opinions from all stakeholders before the Cabinet makes a final decision.
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