TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) withdrew from the 2024 legislative election on Tuesday (June 13) just two weeks after he announced his bid, after an investigation found his party mishandled complaints of sexual harassment when he was deputy secretary general last year.

Lin was in the role when a woman was allegedly sexually harassed by a filmmaker working for a party. The woman was the first to go public with her story on May 31, causing dozens of people to subsequently come forward with their own stories of sexual harassment and abuse, igniting a Me Too movement in Taiwan.

Lin called a press conference on Tuesday afternoon and apologized for the controversy caused by the way the party handled the incident and announced he would be withdrawing from the race. The results of a DPP internal investigation found that Lin was individually free of wrongdoing, but that there were administrative failures within the party, per CNA.

Lin said the internal investigation found that he had not attempted to cover up allegations, nor had he been the subject of any accusations. “However, as the head of the supervisory department, I should still take political responsibility," he said.

“If we had been able to detect the system’s shortcomings early and correct them, then we might have been able to create a friendlier environment sooner,” Lin said.

Lin, who came to national prominence during the Sunflower Movement, announced his election bid for Taipei’s Zhongshan and northern Songshan electoral district on May 31, the same day the first whistleblower went public detailing experiences of sexual harassment while working within the party.