The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of wasting judicial resources by filing lawsuits over the KMT’s replacement of Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) as the party’s presidential candidate.
The Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday summoned KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) for questioning over alleged “benefits exchanges” during the process of replacing Hung.
The KMT caucus said DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), who brought the charges, was wasting judicial resources with the intention of intervening in January’s legislative and presidential elections.
“Does the DPP not regard itself as the future ruling party? If it does, it should conduct election campaigns in an honest and respectable manner, rather than playing dirty tricks and making the public look down on it,” the KMT caucus said.
KMT caucus deputy whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said if Chen has evidence of misconduct, she should make it public “instead of making false accusations in media reports.”
Lin said the party’s recall of Hung’s presidential candidacy and nomination of Chu was completed through the KMT extraordinary congress, in line with the party’s due process.
“The DPP’s lodging of a charge against Chu in a bid to win votes is playing with the judiciary and the SID,” Lin said.
“The SID also summoned Chen, but she failed to attend, saying she has little time due to a tight schedule during the campaign period. What kind of irresponsible accusation is this? She stayed away, but had Chu dragged into the investigation. What is this if not a dirty campaign trick?” Lin asked.
KMT legislators Lee Guei-min (李貴敏) and Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) called for judicial independence.
They asked why the SID summoned the KMT officials just a few days after the congress, but has not acted on a case involving the sale of meal vouchers by the DPP for fundraising events, actions the KMT caucus has many times called on to be investigated.
“Does the DPP run the Ministry of Justice?” Lu asked Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) during a legislative committee meeting.
The deputy minister said the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office is handling the voucher case and would not comment on the case because investigations were ongoing.
Separately yesterday, Chen said she filed the lawsuit based on remarks Hung made in public.
“There are actually voice recordings of meetings behind closed doors, and I have been in touch with two people who have the recordings,” Chen said. “I will continue to provide more evidence to the SID.”
In response to Chu accusing the DPP of using the judiciary to “hunt him down,” DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Chu should not to forget that the KMT is still the governing party.
“The judiciary is investigating the case because people mentioned things like ‘pairing up,’ ‘resources’ and ‘persuading [Hung] to withdraw,’” Tsai said.
Tsai added that she expects the judiciary would remain neutral.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin
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