Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who is charged with vote-buying, yesterday said that council meetings would be suspended indefinitely as Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) continued his boycott of council meetings.
Independent Councilor Lee Yang-yi flipped over a table for city officials in protest against the move.
“I learned last night that more than 30 city councilors are willing to attend today’s [yesterday’s] meeting, but regrettably, Lai has pressured them not to attend by using his authority over budgets and funding for local development projects,” Lee Chuan-chiao told the council as he announced that the meeting was adjourned because of a failure to form a quorum before noon.
Photo: CNA
“I hereby urge the Executive Yuan and the Control Yuan to pursue their administrative responsibilities to penalize and impeach the officials involved,” he said.
“Before that occurs, the Tainan City Council will not meet again,” he added.
After making the remarks, Lee Chuan-chiao and the 26 councilors at the meeting bowed and apologized to the public.
Photo: CNA
Prior to Lee Chuan-chiao’s remarks, Lee Yang-yi turned over and broke the empty long table at which city officials usually sit.
Lee Yang-yi was previously affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but the party revoked his membership after he was accused of accepting bribes from Lee Chuan-chiao during the election for council speaker.
Although the DPP won 28 of the 57 seats in the Tainan City Council against the KMT’s 16 seats during the Nov. 29 election, Lee Chuan-chiao won the speakership with 29 votes.
DPP candidate Lai Mei-hui (賴美惠) garnered 26 votes.
Prosecutors later indicted Lee Chuan-chiao on charges of vote-buying, leading to the Tainan mayor’s announcement that he would not step into the city council before Lee Chuan-chiao’s case is finalized.
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