TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Mayor of New Taipei City and prospective Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) was accused on Monday (April 17) of alleged bribery by former KMT member and political pundit Luo You-zhi (羅友志).
In a Facebook post on Sunday (April 16), Luo claimed that in 2014, he ran in the KMT's primary for councilor in New Taipei City’s seventh electoral district. Luo alleged that Hou, who was deputy mayor at the time, called him for a meeting.
During the meeting, Luo claimed that Hou said, "Brother, I am in charge of councilor nominations this time. You should not run in Tucheng, Shulin, Sanxia, or Yingge. You should run in Xizhi District. We will pay you NT$5 million." Upon hearing this figure, Luo asked "Whose NT$5 million?"
Hou allegedly responded, "Anyway, we have the money, so it's better for everyone..." Luo claimed that he did not take the money because it would have brought shame to the Luo family, which has lived in Taiwan for 400 years.
In Taiwanese Hokkien, Luo accused Hou of "kneading to make glutinous rice ball soup," (搓圓仔湯, so-înn-á-thng), which refers to paying off a candidate to drop out of a political race to reduce competition.
Luo claimed that he learned that his participation in the KMT primary "supposedly" affected a certain "high-level favored candidate." He said that KMT officials were concerned that his participation would ruin their plans and cause "the umbrella joints to loosen."
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) was cited by ETtoday as saying that Luo's statements about the person, time, district, and money are all very clear.
If what Luo says is true, Cheng said it would represent a violation of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法). However, Cheng pointed out that Luo is a senior media figure and if he is not being truthful about the incident, he has committed the crime of aggravated libel.
During an interview on Monday (April 17), Hou said that although Taiwan guarantees freedom of speech, it is also a democratic country ruled by law, reported UDN. On Tuesday (April 18), the New Taipei City Government issued a statement in response to Luo's accusations.
New Taipei City Department of Information Director Chang Ai-chin (張愛晶) stated that Hou has always respected freedom of speech, but it must not be based on falsehoods and rumors. Chang said that Luo's "one-sided statement is groundless" and in 2014, Hou was deputy mayor and did not perform any election duties.
Chang stated that Hou's innocence and reputation have been "severely damaged by some people with serious intentions recently." The mayor is the representative of the New Taipei City Government and "slandering the mayor's innocence is seriously slandering the reputation of the New Taipei City Government and harming the citizens of New Taipei City," Chang said.
Chang said that the city government "solemnly appeals to those involved to stop disseminating false statements for political purposes, so as not to break the law." Chang added that related "false accusations and fabricated content" have already been reported to the New Taipei District Prosecutor's Office and the city government will fully cooperate with the investigation.
