The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday returned a verdict of not-guilty for two men charged with vote-buying in the Kaohsiung mayoral election last December.
Last year, then Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidate Chen Chu (陳菊) accused Ku Hsin-ming (古鋅酩) and Tsai Neng-hsiang (蔡能祥) of handing out money to supporters on chartered buses on their way to an election-eve rally for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英).
The two later admitted that they had given passengers on the buses NT$500 each in return for their votes for "a candidate in the Kaohsiung mayoral election and a Kaohsiung city councilor candidate."
The judges, while acknowledging that the accused had handed out money, found Ku and Tsai not-guilty because they decided that the money was given as payment for attending the campaign rally. As recipients were not required to vote for Huang, this did not amount to vote-buying, the judges ruled.
The court said the men had attempted to solicit votes, rather than buy votes.
Upon hearing of the ruling, Kaohsiung prosecutors said they would appeal to the high court.
"This verdict could mislead candidates and their campaign managers into believing that what happened in this case does not amount to vote-buying. That is not correct," said Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝), spokesman for the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office.
Chung said a campaign manager had been found guilty in a similar case in Kaohsiung last year.
"It is not right that different judges make different rulings when the charges and crimes are the same," Chung said. "We cannot accept it [the ruling] and will appeal."
When approached for comment, Chen, now mayor of Kaohsiung, said that the verdict was not in keeping with the Ministry of Justice's definition of vote-buying.
Chen said the verdict was tantamount to telling legislative candidates that they would not be found guilty of buying votes as long as they did not give anyone more than NT$500.
Chen said she expected an "impartial" verdict on appeal.
Chen defeated Huang in the election by 379,417 votes to 378,303 votes, a margin of 0.14 percent.
Huang filed two lawsuits on Dec. 28, one challenging the election process, the other the result.
The Kaohsiung District Court ruled in June that Chen's camp had violated the Election and Recall Law (
Chen appealed, which led to a final verdict last Friday in which the Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung branch overruled the district court ruling that had annulled Chen's victory.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang and staff writer
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS