Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Keelung Council Speaker Huang Ching-tai (黃景泰), whose nomination as the party’s Keelung mayoral candidate was recalled by the party last week, said yesterday he has more than 70,000 signatures from locals who support his running in the race.
Holding a press conference outside Chingan Temple (慶安宮), where he had protested against the KMT’s withdrawal of his nomination last week, Huang yesterday said that — as he said he would — he has collected more than 50,000 signatures from voters in support of his campaign.
Huang was kicked off the KMT ticket on Wednesday last week, the party said, in light of the allegations linking him to influence peddling and corruption in a number of construction projects in Keelung.
He was released on NT$2 million (US$66,800) bail last month.
As he retains his KMT membership, Huang said he would not take legal action against the party and its resolution, despite having accused the KMT of failing to distinguish right from wrong and of violating procedural justice on Friday last week.
Huang said he hopes to be vindicated “after being prosecuted,” echoing a view he shared earlier in the day in a radio interview, saying that he was certain that he — “while completely innocent” — would “definitely” be prosecuted by prosecutors who had tried to detain him three times, but failed.
During another radio interview on Thursday, Huang said that he would not give up on running for office unless he was “thwarted by a bullet.”
At yesterday’s press conference, he repeated statements about a possible threat to his personal safety.
“I’ve told my wife and my daughter that in the next four months [until the elections in November], I would be facing attacks or other unpredictable scenarios that might impact my personal safety, but I am not deterred,” he said.
Huang thanked village wardens — numbering more than 60, he said — and the more than 100 community “director-generals” who he said helped him collect the signatures, lauding what he described as their “bravery.”
“They are not afraid of the oppression coming from the [KMT’s] city party office and the intimidation exhibited by those police officers who made calls to the chiefs to ask whether they would show up for the press conference [yesterday],” Huang said.
With the help of the local officials, Huang as of yesterday had 76,938 signatures from local voters affirming their support, the dismissed candidate said.
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