Huang Teng-ching (黃澄清), top aide to Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chao (李全教) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was found guilty of vote-buying in last year’s nine-in-one elections and sentenced to five years in prison by the Tainan District Court on Friday.
Two other people, Lee Li-hua (李麗華) and Kang Ching-liang (康清良), described as vote brokers working for Lee Chuan-chao, were also found guilty and given suspended two-year and 19-month sentences respectively.
The court found the three violated provisions of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Huang was secretary-general of Lee Chuan-chao’s campaign office for last year’s November nine-in-one elections, in which Lee Chuan-chao defeated Wang Chun-tang (王峻潭) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to win the city councilor seat for Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井).
Investigators found that Huang worked with Lee Li-hua, Kang and other local campaign managers to offer NT$5,000 per household to buy votes from Yujing District residents.
After the election, Wang filed a lawsuit against Lee Chuan-chao to invalidate the election results, citing vote-buying and other irregularities during campaigning.
Tainan public prosecutors later filed charges against Lee Chuan-chao regarding vote-buying and election irregularities.
The Tainan District Court consolidated the two cases into a single case against Lee Chuan-chao.
In a separate case, prosecutors conducted an investigation into Lee Chuan-chao’s suspected vote-buying for the city council speaker position, which on Feb. 9 resulted in charges and detention.
After nearly two month of detention, the Tainan District Court granted Lee Chuan-chao’s release on bail of NT$15 million (US$473,454), also prohibiting him from leaving the nation or changing his residence.
Due to the charges against Lee Chuan-chao and the ongoing litigation, the Tainan City Council was at a standstill, as DPP Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) refused to attend city council meetings until the court announced its ruling on the validity of Lee Chuan-chao’s election.
Following the court’s ruling, Huang vowed to appeal, saying: “This judgement is motivated by a political persecution. I will not accept it.”
Lee Chuan-chao also said the ruling was not justified and alleged political persecution, adding that he conducted his campaign cleanly, but was falsely accused of vote-buying.
Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), Tainan City Council DPP caucus convener, said: “The guilty ruling reflects the finding of clear evidence of vote-buying. It also means the day is near when a court verdict invalidates Lee’s election.”
“Lee Chuan-chao should not disregard the rule of law in our democratic society. He should have the courage to bear the legal responsibility and should stop proclaiming his innocence and cursing his own family name by pleading to the gods,” Kuo said.
“He should think about how to exit the stage gracefully. Our city council will not suffer to have a speaker who bought his way to the position,” he added.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS