Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) yesterday said he would sue for defamation after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) by-election candidate Yen Kuan-heng’s (顏寬恒) campaign spokesman said that Tsai’s business interests were partly behind corruption allegations against Yen.
Yen is the KMT’s candidate in Taichung’s second electoral district in a by-election scheduled for Jan. 9, facing Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), following the recall of Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party last month.
In a controversy over the Taichung Harbor No. 105 wharf, local DPP city councilors and New Power Party lawmakers have demanded a judicial probe into Yen’s alleged conflict of interest, abuse of power, intimidation of government officials and illegal obtainment security contracts during his term as a KMT legislator from 2013 to 2016.
They said that Yen pressured the Taichung Port Authority to issue private sector contracts for storage of imported coal from incoming freighters that supply the Taichung Power Plant operated under the state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower).
Taichung Port and transport ministry officials revised the plan to outsource the No. 105 wharf through a public tender under pressure from Yen, they said.
The tender was won by Chengfeng Warehouse and Harbor Service last year.
In response, Yen said that the tender was secured legally.
Yen’s campaign spokesman Chang Yu-hsuan (張禹宣) said that Tsai had served in an executive role for a rival company, Chien Shing Harbour Service Co, which lost out on the tender bid.
Chang said that Tsai owned 39,000 shares of Chien Shing stock, currently worth more than NT$1.5 billion (US$53.89 million).
Tsai, a DPP member, said on Thursday that the accusation was false and would file a defamation suit against Yen, pledging to donate any funds awarded to charity.
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