The war of words between election opponents Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) escalated yesterday after prosecutors unexpectedly summoned Yang’s key campaign officials for questioning over a controversial campaign flyer.
Kaohsiung prosecutors on Thursday night summoned Yang’s campaign spokeswoman Tseng Yin-li (曾尹儷) and deputy campaign director Chen Wu-hsun (陳武勳) for questioning less than two hours after Chen Chu filed a lawsuit against Yang for allegedly distributing flyers spreading false rumors about her.
On a motorcade to the city’s Nanzih District (楠梓) yesterday, Yang denied Chen Chu’s allegations that he had launched a personal attack against her, adding that the contents of the flyer were not fabricated and came from material already presented at press conferences during his campaign.
PHOTO: CNA
In the flyer, Yang accused the mayor of taking a nap at her residence when parts of Kaohsiung City were experiencing their worst flooding in the last 50 years on Sept. 19. The flyer also alleged she had sabotaged the campaign of Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate in 2006, by asking young campaign officials to make vote-buying allegations against Huang.
It also alleged that Chen was manipulating the judiciary to sabotage his chances of winning the Greater Kaohsiung mayoral election. Later yesterday, Yang visited Kaohsiung Prosecutors’ Office chief Hsing Tai-chao (刑泰釗) to express his dissatisfaction.
Responding to Yang’s comments, Chen Chu told reporters she did not have the means to influence prosecutors.
While Yang was trying to tarnish her reputation, Chen Chu said, she was confident Kaohsiung voters could tell right from wrong.
Head prosecutor Wang Chun-li (王俊力) told a press conference after Yang’s visit that prosecutors had summoned Tseng and Chen Wu-hsun as witnesses because the case was urgent.
Yang’s allegations of Chen Chu’s tactics against Huang stemmed from a late-night press conference held by Chen Chu’s camp the night before the last Kaoshiung mayoral election, in which it accused Huang of giving cash to people who participated in his rally.
The next day, Chen Chu defeated Huang by a mere 1,114 votes.
Ku Hsin-ming (古鋅酩), who rented a tour bus to take participants to Huang’s rally, said he paid them of his own free will. In August last year, the Supreme Court sentenced Ku to three-and-a-half-years in jail for vote buying.
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