Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Wednesday last week made controversial comments in a radio interview, saying: “Aren’t all council speakers in northern Taiwan gangsters?” and “Tell me which one isn’t.”
He later said that his comments were “imprecise,” as he was mocking Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) for refusing to nominate a party member with a criminal record as a candidate for county commissioner, despite previously allowing him to run in a council speaker race, which he won.
Among the seven council speakers in northern Taiwan, three have criminal records, one had a prosecution dismissed and three have clean records.
The Taiwan Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association on Wednesday released its findings on the criminal records of city or county councilor candidates in this month’s local elections.
Association chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a former lawmaker, reported that among the 1,677 councilor candidates, 195 — 11.6 percent — have been prosecuted or have criminal records.
The areas with the highest rates are Yunlin County, where 24.6 percent of candidates have been prosecuted or have criminal records, followed by Miaoli County at 20.8 percent, Kinmen County at 18.8 percent, Kaohsiung at 18 percent and Changhua County at 16.3 percent, the data show. Twelve cities and counties have more than 10 percent of councilor candidates with criminal records, and only Penghu County has none.
Broken down by political party membership, the data show that those with criminal records are 14.4 percent KMT, 12.9 percent independent, 9.5 percent Democratic Progressive Party, including one who later quit the party, and 4.7 percent TPP.
The report examined whether local councilor candidates have been criminally prosecuted, have a criminal conviction record or have been blacklisted by the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Chihping anti-gangster program. It highlighted candidates who have been convicted for contravening the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) or who have been associated with cases of serious violence, including murder, convicted of corruption at first instance, convicted of abuse of authority of office or other crimes of note.
The association’s Web site has a map that allows people to click on a city or county and see the candidates who have criminal records, along with links to media reports about the convictions and verdicts in the Judicial Yuan’s Law and Regulations Retrieving System.
When the association launched its investigation in late August, it said that of the 885 incumbent local councilors, 136 have criminal records, or 15.37 percent.
After the association released its report on Wednesday, a survey conducted by Yahoo Taiwan on Thursday asked if people were concerned that “195 councilor candidates have criminal records,” garnering more than 6,500 responses as of noon yesterday. Among the respondents, 61.3 percent said they were “very concerned” and 24.9 percent were “concerned,” while 62.1 percent said candidates with criminal records would “definitely” affect their perspective on the parties that nominated them, and 20.9 percent said it would “likely” affect their perspective.
However, most people learn about candidates through the media, with reports focusing on the mayoral candidates in the six special municipalities, so few are aware of the political credentials of councilor candidates, with most having only vague knowledge of their party affiliation.
People must remember that they have the power to decide who represents them in local administrations. Care should be taken to examine candidates’ records.
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