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.
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