The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has been accused of election fraud due to alleged vote-buying tactics aimed at the local business community as well as companies based in China.
The KMT allegedly requested that members of these groups make the trip back home to vote for Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and others running under the KMT banner.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎), who leveled the charge, said he received information from several people who had attended banquets and other social events in China in recent weeks.
The DPP is demanding that the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office immediately conduct judicial probes into these alleged schemes by the KMT to procure the votes of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople through financial inducement, discount airfares and other promised incentives, Huang said.
In the latest estimate, more than 100,000 Taiwanese working and living in China with their spouses and families are expected to return home to vote in today’s elections, according to Chang Han-wen (張漢文), chairman of an alliance of KMT-affiliated organizations of Taiwanese companies operating in China.
Huang said several KMT events had taken place in major Chinese cities, with one organized by the business alliance headed by Chang taking place on Sunday at an upmarket hotel in Guangdong Province’s Dongwan, an event that was said to have been attended by more than 2,000 Taiwanese businesspeople.
Local media reported that attendees were offered free lunch and dinner, along with a half-day group tour to several rural attractions, with all expenses paid for by organizers.
A number of senior KMT officials and executives attended the event and they in particular were allegedly asked to vote for Lien in the Taipei election and for other KMT candidates in other districts.
“We call on prosecutors for judicial probes into these cases right away and that no limit should be set on the investigation,” Huang said.
In response, Chang yesterday said that he and his organization did not engage in any vote-buying practices and that the Dongwan function was a business community gathering and not related to KMT affairs.
He added that it is normal to ask Taiwanese voters to return home to vote and that they were not being influenced on which candidates to vote for.
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