The Kaohsiung District Court judges' decision on Friday to annul Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu's (
The court in charge of the lawsuit consisted of three judges. While Preceding Judge Huang Hung-chin (
Huang's action was considered rare in common courtroom practice, said judicial experts.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
Former Tainan judge and currently Kaohsiung prosecutor Chang Hsueh-ming (
"His point of view would have been considered as the judges of Taiwan High Court listened to the case," he said. "I expect an intense crossfire during the second trial."
Preceding Judge Huang said in the ruling that Chen lost the suit mainly because she violated the Election and Recall Law (
The ruling said the Chen camp's press conference on the eve of the election accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Huang Chun-ying's (黃俊英) camp of vote-buying violated the Election and Recall Law, which stipulates that election candidates must stop campaign activities at 10pm on the eve of elections.
The ruling said the vote-buying allegation made by Chen's camp at the press conference had spread via TV and radio reports. Chen's camp also spread it by sending text massages to Kaohsiung voters, which impacted Huang's chances in the election, the ruling said.
Huang Hung-chin said that the purpose of banning campaign activities on the eve of elections is to avoid any surprise attack on campaign rivals and so to ensure procedural justice and a fair competition.
The ruling said that the press conference held by Chen's camp left Huang Chun-ying's camp no time to explain or clarify the matter before the vote, putting Huang in an unfair position in the race.
"The tactic ... was enough to influence the election result," the district court ruled in its verdict.
The vote-buying allegation made by Chen's camp turned out to be valid and Kaohsiung prosecutors have indicted Ku Hsin-ming (
Tsai was suspected by prosecutors of supplying the funds.
Last Friday's ruling said that while the evidence showed that the two men had engaged in vote-buying, there was nothing to prove Huang's involvement in this, as Chen's team had said in its press conference.
However, Ku outlined questions challenging the ruling.
First, he said, if Huang's camp could not prove that Chen's claim that "Huang was paying `walking fees' (
Second, Ku said that since the Chen camp's negative campaign tactic at most violated the regulations relating to the period for campaigning, voters' voting rights were by no means affected by such an infraction.
Consequently, he said, Chen had not broken any fundamental election-related principles which would justify the annulment ruling.
Ku said the evidence showed it was Chen's campaign team -- not Chen herself -- who led the accusation campaign, and that therefore Chen was not the main defendant in the case and should not be responsible for the incident.
He said it is common for candidates to make revelations about or attack their rivals during election campaigns and that these should be protected under freedom of speech.
He further argued that such accusations should be assessed by the voters themselves, the media and government authorities in charge of holding elections.
Lin Ching-tsung (林慶宗), a prosecutor with the high court's Kaohsiung office, said he was surprised by the ruling, but said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should not have criticized the verdict, because the criticism might leave a bad impression on the judges who will be taking over the case following Chen Chu's appeal.
President Chen Shui-bian (
He said he was confident Chen Chu would complete her term as mayor and believed Kaohsiung residents felt the same.
KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), meanwhile, said yesterday he hoped the Taiwan High Court would uphold the ruling.
Although the court's ruling provoked mixed responses, Ma said he believed the verdict would be helpful in wiping out "dirty tricks" in future elections.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
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