The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of vote-buying in Hsinchu City by providing at least 1,000 tables of food to residents.
The KMT held a year-end traditional Taiwanese “roadside banquet”-style dinner party on Saturday last week in Hsinchu, with more than 1,000 tables for more than 10,000 participants, the DPP said.
DPP campaign director-general Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said the KMT was attempting to buy votes by holding what it called a “thanksgiving” activity in the name of the KMT Hsinchu City Council caucus.
At a news conference, the DPP played video clips provided by netizens that showed KMT Hsinchu legislative candidate Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐) and KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) strolling between the tables wearing campaign vests.
“The city council caucus had never held a ‘thanksgiving’ event such as this before. That the KMT capitalized on that theme to attempt to buy votes at this sensitive time is disappointing,” Su said.
The head of the DPP’s anti-vote-buying supervision task force, Lian Li-jian (連立堅), said that although banquet staff made efforts to prevent evidence of bribery — such as asking the crowd not to yell Dongsuan, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) for “get elected” — “the chanting of the phrase was still heard,” Lian said.
The event’s host also specifically mentioned that Lee was attending in place of KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), Lian added.
“Additionally, some messages sent out during preparations for the banquet were sent in the name of the candidates’ support club and said that the event was a ‘rally’ for Chu and Cheng supporters,” Lian said.
Cheng Hung-hui (鄭宏輝), the director of DPP legislative candidate Ker Chien-ming’s (柯建銘) campaign, said a 1,000-table banquet is not only a striking sight, but also greatly humiliating to the people of Hsinchu.
The event has set back Taiwan’s democracy by at least 30 years and is a public challenge to the law, he said, adding that since the population of Hsinchu City is less than 300,000, a banquet of this magnitude would definitely affect election outcomes.
Lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said the event was an unbelievably arrogant move by the KMT, adding that the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office recently publicized examples of vote-buying, one of which was providing free meals or roadside banquets on the pretext of a “social gathering” or a fundraiser.
Koo called on prosecutors to take action before the elections, emphasizing that post-election measures are not sufficient to curb corruption or correct the damage it causes to democracy.
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