The Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday said it suspected 12 individuals of buying votes ahead of the Nov. 26 local elections and filed suit to annul the elections of seven of those individuals.
Changhua Deputy Chief Prosecutor Wu Yu-hsuan (???) said in an interview at the office that prosecutors filed six suits on Dec. 19 to void the results of the seven individuals, all of whom were successfully voted into office in the late November polls.
They are also preparing to sue to void the results of the other five in connection with three other separate incidents related to vote-buying, Wu said.
In a statement, prosecutors identified the seven named in the first six suits as Changhua County councilors-elect Lin Mao Ming (???), Huang Chun-yuan (???) and Shih Chia-hua (???); Fangyuan Township mayor-elect Lin Pao-ling (???), Fangyuan Township representative-elect Hung Chiang-huai (???), Zhutang Township representative-elect Lin Chuan (??), and Guangfu Village Chief-elect Hsiao Chien-yuan (???).
All seven individuals are suspected of distributing cash bribes to voters, the prosecutors’ office statement said, without providing any details on what specifically happened.
Prosecutors said they were still investigating the involvement of the seven politicians in alleged vote-buying incidents before filing criminal charges, which have a higher burden of proof than the suits to overturn election results.
Lin Mao-ming and Shih were still being detained as of Wednesday afternoon, they said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said they had identified five other individuals suspected of vote-buying in three separate incidents and were working to file suits to void their successful election results.
The five individuals include a county councilor-elect surnamed Hsiao (?), a township mayor-elect surnamed Su (?), and three township representative-elects surnamed Chen (?), Lai (?) and Chang (?), respectively, prosecutors said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel