The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday filed invalidation suits against 16 more elected officials, following 16 others it charged the previous day.
The 16 people charged yesterday — three newly elected Greater Kaohsiung councilors and 13 ward chiefs — are suspected of either committing bribery or vote-buying carried out by their relatives or campaign aides prior to the Nov. 27 special municipality elections, the prosecutors said.
A stunned Sun Ching-lung (孫慶龍), one of the three councilors charged yesterday, said he had no idea why he was charged and attributed the development to a plot by his opponents to frame him.
On Thursday, the prosecutors’ office also filed invalidation suits against 16 elected officials — four are city councilors and 12 are borough chiefs.
The four councilors are Tseng Shui-wen (曾水文), Chang Feng-teng (張豐藤), Yang Jian-fu (楊見福) and Lee Hung-jun (李鴻鈞). Chang was charged with bribery through his sponsorship of an eco-tour of Kaohsiung Harbor, while the other three were charged with buying votes.
All said they were stunned and that they had no idea why they had been charged.
Chang said his environmental education association sponsored a marine ecology tour, which charged participants NT$100.
“I told the prosecutors clearly that this was purely an educational activity. I cannot comprehend why they charged me,” he said.
Yang said prosecutors had searched his campaign office earlier this week and interviewed him in their office. He questioned why they would have let him go if he was a suspect.
The 12 borough chiefs were charged with various election irregularities.
Under the law, suits to invalidate the election of public officials must be filed within one month of the election commission making the election results public.
Kaohsiung’s election commission announced the winners of the Nov. 27 special municipality elections on Dec. 2, but the court will accept invalidation suits on Monday because the first two days of this month are holidays.
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