Officials of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office yesterday raided 40 different locations yesterday searching for evidence of vote-buying in the election of Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄).
During the searches some NT$2 million in cash was found in the residence of DPP council caucus whip Jan Yung-lung (
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Jan denied last night that the money found at his residence had any connection with vote buying.
Fourteen prosecutors and more than one hundred officials from the prosecutors' office searched Chu's residence, his An Feng Metal Company (
Written notes believed to contain details of the vote-buying were found in Chu's residence, while the accounts of An Feng were seized for examination in yesterday's search.
Chu, an independent city councilor, was elected as the council's speaker Wednesday with 25 votes from KMT, PFP, and independent councilors. He, however, has been suspected of buying votes for his speakership campaign.
The search was launched at 5:30pm yesterday, after Chu held a press conference stressing his innocence and that of the 25 councilors who voted for him.
Chu, however, made no comment on the result of the searches last night.
Political parties, including the DPP and KMT, both expressed their support for the investigation and appealed to their party members to cooperate with prosecutors.
Earlier yesterday, Chu demanded evidence from those politicians who had accused him of involvement in vote-buying for the speakership election and denounced his background of black-gold in a press conference.
"I am sorry for the 25 councilors who voted for me. They are innocent. Those people who accused me of vote-buying should prove it," Chu said.
"I am not a member of any [criminal] gang. How can they denounce me as a black-gold operator?" he said.
In yesterday's conference, Chu said that he was elected because of the irreconcilable conflicts between the political parties.
"High-ranking party officials living in Taipei [without knowing anything of the local society], are unsatisfied with the election result. They blame everything but themselves, despite this [his election as an independent] being the best result of this election," he said, reacting to the KMT and PFP's attempt to unseat him.
Political commentators yesterday said that Chu's election and the vote-buying allegations were just another example of local councils' vote-buying culture.
"This has been a tradition for the councilors. They need to get back the money they spent on their election campaigns from the speakership election," said Chen Li-kan (
"That's why politicians like the KMT's James Chen (
Chen was the director of the KMT's Organizational Affairs Department. He resigned on Thursday to take responsibility for the speakership election fiasco.
The speaker's position can be a lucrative one because the speaker automatically becomes a member of the city's Urban Planning Commission, a small body which administers city zoning. Huge sums of money can be made by rezoning farmland for commercial use.
Also see stories:
KMT seeks revision to oust Chu
Chu An-hsiung to face hearing in early January
Investigators find lavish bribery tab
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
A Control Yuan member yesterday said he would initiate an investigation into why the number of foreign nationals injured or killed in traffic incidents has nearly doubled in the past few years, and whether government agencies’ mechanisms were ineffective in ensuring road safety. Control Yuan member Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) said in a news release that Taiwan has been described as a “living hell for pedestrians” and traffic safety has become an important national security issue. According to a National Audit Office report released last year, more than 780,000 foreign nationals were legally residing in Taiwan in 2019, which grew to more than
RSS