Pingtung County Council Speaker Chou Tien-lun (周典論) has been indicted on suspicion of buying signatures for business tycoon Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) bid to qualify for a place on the presidential ballot, the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday.
Chou, who was in custody after being detained in December last year, was charged with contravening the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法), prosecutors said.
The prosecution of Chaojhou Township (潮州) Mayor Chou Pin-chuan (周品全), who was detained alongside Chou Tien-lun, but released last month, has been deferred.
Photo: Yeh Yung-chien, Taipei Times
After receiving a tip that the duo were buying signatures for Gou for NT$200 apiece, investigators raided the residences and offices of the two Chous and brought them in for questioning, prosecutors said.
The Pingtung District Court in December last year approved a motion to detain the pair, who are both members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Gou, the founder of major Apple supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (known internationally as Foxconn), announced his bid to run for president as an independent in late August last year.
To get his name on the ballot, Gou needed to collect 289,667 valid signatures, representing 1.5 percent of eligible voters in the 2020 presidential election.
Gou began collecting endorsements on Sept. 20 last year and officially reached the threshold with 902,389 signatures, Central Election Commission data showed.
Despite getting enough signatures, Gou, who was trailing in opinion polls with single-digit support, dropped out of the race and did not formally register his candidacy by the deadline on Nov. 24 last year.
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