TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Prosecutors on Thursday (Feb. 22) charged Pingtung County Council Speaker Chou Tien-lun (周典論) for spending NT$5 million (US$158,000) on signatures to help the presidential bid of Foxconn founder Terry Gou (郭台銘).
As an independent candidate, the tycoon needed pubic endorsements to appear on the ballot in the Jan. 13 election. Despite having collected enough signatures, Gou abandoned his campaign.
Prosecutors said Chou, a Kuomintang (KMT) member, paid a first installment of NT$1.5 million at his home on Sept. 1 to Chaozhou Township Mayor Chou Pin-chuan (周品全), per CNA. A couple of weeks later, he gave the mayor and his secretary, surnamed Chen (陳), an additional NT$3.5 million.
The plan was to pay NT$500 for an endorsement of Gou’s candidacy, according to prosecutors. In October, Chen asked a temple manager to join the scheme, with the manager receiving NT$500 for each signature he could collect while handing out NT$200 per person to the signatories.
The prosecutors demanded a heavy sentence for Chou, as the speaker had shown no remorse for his attempts to influence the election through money, a violation of the Election and Recall Act.
The four other suspects in the case, the township mayor, his secretary, the temple manager, and his wife had admitted to breaking the law and thus received indictments suspended for three years.