Two more officials affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the south were taken into custody and questioned during a judicial investigation into a series of election irregularities and smear campaign tactics.
Armed with search warrants, investigators with the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office raided the KMT’s Pingtung County headquarters in Pingtung City, and confiscated computers, data files, paper documents and other potential evidence.
The investigation is focused on a campaign brochure distributed widely in Pingtung County last week that insinuated Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator and county commissioner candidate Pan Men-an (潘孟安) was having an affair.
Produced by the Pingtung County Women’s Association, an organization affiliated with the KMT that has several KMT executives in its ranks, the brochure was headlined: “Even if Pan An (潘安) returns to life, he must not opt to destroy other people’s family.”
The brochure also had a picture of a monkey dressed in a business suit being grabbed by a large hand, apparently depicting what is known as “capturing the monkey” (抓猴, lia gao in Hoklo, commonly known as Taiwanese), which is a common Taiwanese cultural reference to catching a husband who has extramarital affairs and is trying to hide them from his wife.
“Pan An” is a Chinese literary figure who is said to be very handsome and irresistible to women.
DPP’s Pingtung County headquarters filed a formal complaint and asked the judicial authorities to investigate, saying that the brochure was clearly referring to Pan Men-an and was unscrupulous to insinuate that a political opponent is engaged in extramarital affairs. It added that such mudslinging tactics must be stopped.
Following the raid, prosecutors took two officials into custody for questioning: office publicity director Huang Wen-cheng (黃文政) and Tsai Chiu-hsiang (蔡秋香), the director of the women’s association that is affiliated with the KMT.
After questioning, Huang and Tsai were released after posting bail of NT$50,000 and NT$20,000 respectively.
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