Up to 30 elected officials in Pingtung County could lose their newly won positions, after investigators found evidence of vote-buying and other illicit activities during their campaigns, the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office said on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said they have gathered sufficient evidence, including testimony from witnesses and people involved, to press charges over contraventions of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Litigation proceedings at the Pingtung District Court to invalidate the election results in the affected districts have begun, head prosecutor Chen Yi-li (陳怡利) said.
Documents were forwarded to the court last month, since Central Election Commission regulations require districts to file a request to invalidate election results within 30 days, Chen said.
The officials involved are three township mayors, five county councilors, six village and borough wardens, and 16 township council representatives. They include members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and independents.
It was the highest number of nullification applications submitted at a single time for local elections.
“Most of them have been charged for vote-buying,” Chen said. “Some cases involved candidates giving out gifts and valuable items, while others utilized ‘ghost voters’ — using people’s names to cast ballots, even though they do not live in the voting district.”
Pundits have called Pingtung County a disgrace to Taiwan’s democracy due to the number of vote-buying and illegal campaigning incidents uncovered there.
Those affected by the nullification requests include Hengchun Township (恆春) mayor-elect Lu Yu-tung (盧玉棟) of the KMT, Kanding Township (崁頂) mayor-elect Lin Kuang-hua (林光華) of the DPP and Nanzhou Township (南州) mayor-elect Huang Ying-yu (黃盈裕), who has no party affiliation.
Lin yesterday said he was aware that some of his supporters were arrested and questioned on vote-buying allegations.
“They were acting of their own accord and should not affect my winning the seat. I do not understand it and the incidents should not be serious enough to invalidate the election results,” he said.
The five affected councilors-elect were Lin Tsai-ying (林采穎) and Cheng Shuang-chuan (鄭雙銓) of the KMT, Huang Chien-yi (黃建溢) and Pan Shu-chen (潘淑真) of the DPP, and Chou Chen Wen-pin (周陳文彬), an independent.
If the court nullifies the results, then by commission regulations, the candidates who came second would take office.
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