Public prosecutors have paved the way to invalidate the re-election victories of Yilan County Luodong Township (羅東) Mayor Wu Chiu-ling (吳秋齡) and Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Tien-huang (黃天煌), after filing litigation yesterday on evidence of vote-buying and other campaign contraventions during the Nov. 26 local elections.
Civil court judges are to rule on the matters regarding the two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members.
Wu won the Luodong mayor’s office in 2018, and defeated Democratic Progressive Party nominee Huang Shih-chao (黃適超) last month.
Photo: CNA
Yilan prosecutors investigated vote-buying allegations after receiving judicial complaints that Wu had organized fundraising banquets in March this year using township funds.
The first banquet invited volunteers and civil society groups who worked on local government programs, and a second invited Luodong public employees — including school officials, principals and executives of student-parent groups — with tables costing NT$4,500 each, judicial investigators said.
Wu went to each table during the second banquet to ask for support in the upcoming election, presenting each guest with a bottle of red wine valued at NT$980 each, investigators said.
Prosecutors yesterday said they have evidence that Wu instructed her subordinates to forge receipts and disguise the public funding of the banquets.
They determined that Wu handed out bribes for financial benefit and in exchange for votes, in contravention of the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
They also filed to nullify the results of the Luodong mayoral election.
Wu denied any wrongdoing, saying that the wine was provided by a borough warden who runs an import company, and the gifts were to promote his business and the brand of wine.
Prosecutors also filed to invalidate the election of Huang in Kaohsiung on evidence that three of his campaign workers organized a bus trip for 30 local residents and treated them to a seafood banquet at Pingtung’s Donggang Harbor (東港) in October.
Huang served two terms as warden for Kaohsiung’s Daliao Township (大寮) from 1998 to 2006, and and has served as a councilor for Daliao District since 2010.
Investigators determined that Huang and his election managers had solicited votes during the bus trip and at the banquet, while receipts showed each table cost NT$5,000 in public funds.
Kaohsiung prosecutors said the events amounted to buying votes, in contravention of electoral law, and filed to invalidate Huang’s re-election last month.
Prosecutors also cited evidence of cash disbursements in exchange for votes and fraudulent voter registration relating to the campaigns of three candidates who had won borough warden seats in the city.
Meanwhile, Taoyuan prosecutors concluded investigations into vote-buying in several Taoyuan districts, and announced indictments against six candidates that won last month’s elections, including one district representative and five borough wardens, and are also seeking to invalidate the results.
Prosecutors in Changhua County pressed vote-buying charges against 12 people on Wednesday regarding alleged illegal activities in the run-up to the Nov. 26 local elections, and filed to annul the outcome against four county councilors.
Investigators found evidence of disbursing cash in exchange for votes in the districts for winning KMT county councilors Shih Chia-hua (施嘉華), Huang Chun-yuan (黃俊源) and Lin Mao-ming (林茂明), and independent councilor Hsiao Yu-keng (蕭妤?).
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