The Greater Tainan City Council’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus is planning not to register their attendance at an interim city council meeting scheduled for tomorrow, which they said could otherwise protect newly elected council speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Lee was charged with corruption by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday last week to invalidate his victory in the city councilor election on Nov. 29.
Prosecutors are also looking into the DPP’s allegation that Lee was only elected as speaker for the council on Dec. 25 because some DPP city councilors voted for him in return for money offered by the KMT, which holds only 19 seats in the 57-seat city council.
Five of the DPP’s Greater Tainan city councilors were expelled as a result.
“The corruption case against Lee is also set to be heard by the court on Jan. 6. It is apparent that he is attempting to avoid appearing before the court by calling the interim meeting,” Tainan City Councilor Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) of the DPP said.
Lin said the DPP caucus has decided to boycott the meeting because Lee would not be able to use it as a pretense for not appearing in court if the number of attendees falls below the number needed for a quorum of half of all city councilors.
The five expelled city councilors could play a decisive role in whether the meeting will be held as scheduled, Lin said, adding that the challenge facing the city council is not about the political division between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, but about choosing between right and wrong.
However, according to the city council’s rules of procedure, the chairman of a meeting is entitled to postpone the event should the number of attendees fail to reach a quorum and can decide whether to postpone the meeting again or hold an informal meeting instead if a quorum is also not present the second time.
Dismissing the DPP’s decision, KMT Tainan City Councilor Tsai Shu-hui (蔡淑惠) said the interim meeting would last only 10 days and that it takes more than a few days for the court to rule on a legal case.
“Since there are going to be more plenary meetings at the city council in the future, the DPP caucus might as well just attend the interim event. What are you [the DPP] so afraid of?” Tsai said.
In response, Lee issued a statement yesterday saying that as the corruption case involving him is to be heard by a civil court, his presence is not necessarily required.
“If I am specifically asked to attend, I will ask for a leave of absence with the city council and will not use the interim meeting as an excuse not to go,” Lee said.
Lee said the extraordinary meeting was neither called by him nor politically motivated, adding that only issues of interest to the public would be discussed and urging all city councilors to return to rationality.
Prosecutors are scheduled to seize the ballots cast in the speaker election as evidence today.
Saying that DPP Tainan city councilors had been taking turns “guarding” the votes, DPP Tainan City Councilor Tsai Wang-chuan (蔡旺詮) said he hopes that prosecutors can ascertain the truth behind the alleged vote-buying in the speaker election as soon as possible so that the city council can go back to being a free and democratic institution.
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