Yilan County Commissioner Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華) yesterday denied engaging in corruption, vowing to withdraw from the election for county commissioner and resign if he was found guilty.
Lu, of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said the allegations against him and his administration were part of a smear campaign by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), adding that the county government did not take bribes from the Yilan Green Expo project last year.
“The media reports are false and I will resign from my position and withdraw from the election and get hit by a car if I am found to have been involved in corruption,” he said.
Next Magazine yesterday alleged that Lu and his administration pocketed NT$22 million (US$680,000) from the contractor of the Yilan Green Expo project, adding that prosecutors had launched an investigation in June last year.
Lu said the Yilan County Council’s DPP caucus made the same allegations last month and criticized the DPP for seeking victory in the county commissioner election by resorting to “vicious attacks” and smear tactics.
“I will resign immediately if I am found to have participated in any illegal actions and would give the most serious punishment to any of my team members if they were found guilty,” he said.
DPP spokesman Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) yesterday lambasted the KMT for its “totalitarian governance and complete corruption” in responding to the allegations, adding that the DPP leadership was guaranteed to be top quality if it won in the year-end local government elections.
“In the past year, the KMT has sufficiently demonstrated its inability to govern and failed to provide a better life for the public. Our polls show that voters are dissatisfied with the government. This is a good opportunity for the DPP, but it does not mean we are a shoo-in. We must still demonstrate to the public that we are ready to lead,” he said.
Chao said that in preparing for the battle ahead, the party was seeking small donations from the public and pan-green supporters. All DPP officials who have been mandated to fundraise a certain sum must also remit half of the amount by the end of this month rather than next month as initially scheduled.
Party election officials will also be assigned to the 15 counties and DPP candidates will rally support by reaching out at the grassroots level, he said.
The party has asked all incumbent pan-green county commissioners and mayors to appear at the DPP Central Standing Committee in the next few months to report on their accomplishments.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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