Tainan prosecutors yesterday charged two people with vote-buying and deferred prosecution for another two people following searches conducted two months ago based on complaints from local residents.
The alleged breaches of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) are reportedly the first of their kind in this election season.
The main suspect, a man surnamed Lee (李), and an accomplice, surnamed Cheng (鄭), allegedly enticed Tainan residents with tours of Taiwan, dinners and gifts of food, including sausages, fish balls and cookies, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Lee formed a Tainan food workers’ association and printed brochures for it, which he and Cheng distributed in person and online, including via Line and other messaging apps, Tainan Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lin Chung-pin (林仲斌) said.
“Lee asked people to register with his association for a NT$1,200 [US$39.85] annual fee, with members entitled to four restaurant dinners, 10 tours to destinations across Taiwan and gift packages of food,” Lin said.
The brochures listed Lee Wu-lung (李武龍) as an executive of the association.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in Tainan’s second electoral district has the same name.
Lee Wu-lung is running against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) in the elections on Saturday next week.
The two main suspects asked members of the association to vote for Lee Wu-lung, Lin said.
“Their alleged actions were deemed to be a form of bribery, as members would receive undue benefits in return for promising to vote for a specified candidate,” Lin said.
Prosecutors searched several locations on Nov. 20 and questioned 31 people.
On Nov. 25, Lee Wu-lung and supporters told prosecutors that he had no connection to vote-buying activity and filed a judicial complaint against the main suspect.
“I do not know this man, Lee [the suspect], and did not authorize him to circulate the brochures and sign up members with offers,” Lee Wu-lung said.
“The man used my name and my father’s name on the brochure as the association’s executives,” he said, adding that “it was done without my knowledge.”
“The man’s actions were part of an illegal scheme to benefit himself and he has tarnished my reputation,” Lee Wu-lung said. “He left people with a negative impression of me as a buyer of votes.”
“I must file a judicial complaint to defend my good name and restore my honor,” he said.
Separately yesterday, Criminal Investigation Bureau officials said that they were questioning six people who could face charges of breaches of the Banking Act (銀行法) after an allegedly illicit banking operation in New Taipei City was raided.
The suspects allegedly wired a total of NT$225.6 million between Taiwan and China over the past two years, the bureau said.
The operation was allegedly headed by two brothers surnamed Wang (王) and made about NT$9 million, it said.
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