It was recently revealed that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Sinbei City mayoral candidate, Eric Chu (朱立倫), was still enjoying high-level government perks despite having resigned his position as vice premier more than three months ago.
The Chinese-language Next Magazine reported yesterday that Chu was still accompanied by at least two bodyguards, normally a perk that a retired vice premier would have to give up within three months.
The bodyguards — two police officers that have accompanied Chu since his previous stint as Taoyuan County commissioner — have been witnessed attending almost every one of his election activities, ranging from temple gatherings to visits to traditional marketplaces.
PHOTO: PAN HSING-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Yesterday, Chu’s campaign office said the perks were legal, pointing to a new revision by the National Police Agency (NPA) in the safety guidelines for candidates in the November special municipality elections.
“We all received this notification more than a month ago ... so we made the request. I think it is unexpected that there would be a problem with this application,” Chu said during a campaign stop.
However, the new amendment, which allows party candidates to apply for bodyguards even if they have not officially registered their candidacy, was only passed on July 22, less than a month before Chu was to bid his bodyguards farewell.
The Next Magazine report comes just days after Chu told supporters at a recent campaign event in Taipei County that he was simply a “small, everyday citizen” after having served in various high-level posts in the central government since his tenure as a KMT lawmaker.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called the report another example of KMT candidates enjoying “special benefits” that were not made available to opposition party candidates.
DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) accused the NPA of tweaking regulations to work in Chu’s favor and failing to notify the DPP’s Sinbei City candidate, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who also doubles as DPP chairperson.
“It could just be a thoughtful action from the police, worried that Chu would not be used to his role as a ‘small everyday citizen,’” he said. “The revision means that Chu’s security will have a seamless transition.”
Tsai Ing-wen, a former vice premier, confirmed that her campaign office had never received an official statement on the revision from police authorities. She is usually accompanied by a female DPP assistant during her election outings.
The NPA released a statement yesterday saying that the revisions were made to ensure the safety of political candidates. It said that the amendment was made available to all candidates regardless of political party and should not be counted as a “special benefit.”
“The [new rules] were made to allow bodyguards to be assigned to candidates that have already received their political party’s nomination. As long as the applicant fulfills the regulations, their request will be accepted,” the statement read.
Of the seven non-incumbent mayors running in the five mayoral spots in November, three candidates — Chu, the DPP’s Greater Tainan mayoral candidate William Lai (賴清德) and the KMT’s Greater Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) — have already applied for bodyguards, NPA said.
While Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) pointed to Lai’s application as an example of how the benefits were applied equally to candidates from each side, the DPP said that Lai had originally applied under a separate set of regulations after he received threatening phone calls during the local municipality elections last year.
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