TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will take action to prevent candidates involved in plagiarism from running for office, Chairman Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Wednesday (Feb. 8).

The issue of plagiarism played a major part in the campaign for last November’s regional elections, with several candidates from several parties facing allegations about their theses. Former Hsinchu City Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) withdrew from the race for mayor of Taoyuan City after National Taiwan University (NTU) confirmed his master’s thesis had plagiarism issues, though he continued to claim innocence.

The DPP approved a motion Wednesday requesting its candidates for public office to sign a document confirming they had not indulged in any form of plagiarism, while a special team of experts and academics would investigate relevant accusations. If questions about the authenticity of theses persisted, the DPP would ask the candidates not to list the related diploma on their election registration form, the Liberty Times reported.

The accusations against Lin were widely seen as one of the factors in the DPP’s poor showing in the Nov. 26 elections. Even though Lin was replaced by another candidate in Taoyuan City, the party still lost the seat of mayor to the opposition Kuomintang (KMT).

When Lai took over as DPP chairman last month, he promised a package of reforms to improve the party’s image. The DPP leader, who also serves as vice president, is widely tipped as the frontrunner for the ruling party’s nomination in the next presidential election, expected in Jan. 2024, with legislative elections taking place on the same day.