TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tainan City Council Speaker Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉), Deputy Speaker Lin Chih-chan (林志展) and eight others have been cleared of vote rigging charges related to an election held in 2022.

The Tainan District Court said that there was insufficient evidence to convict the 10 co-defendants on Monday (April 29) - a verdict which is subject to appeal. 

Prosecutors accused the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Chiu and Lin of obtaining support via intimidation and vote buying during the 2022 election in which Chiu defeated the Kuomintang (KMT)-supported independent speaker Kuo Hsin-liang (郭信良), per CNA.

Chiu defeated Kuo in the 57-seat council 36-21. At the time of the election, the DPP held 28 seats, the KMT 12, independents 13, and the remainder were held by three minor parties.

Prosecutors alleged that Chiu and Lin targeted KMT and independent candidates to vote for the DPP nominees. One of those alleged targets was the KMT’s Fang Yi-feng (方一峰), who prosecutors said lodged a police report after Lin, with city government employee and co-defendant Huang Yi-ping (黃怡萍), asked to meet him in a van to influence his vote.

However, the lead judge presiding over the case, Chuang Chung-ta (莊政達), said the suspects’ interactions with Fang did not show a clear intent to bribe, per Yahoo News. Fang’s testimony was also at times contradictory and repetitive, the judge said.

Transcripts of phone conversations alleging evidence of bribery were also seen at the trial, though were ruled insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.

In addition to Chiu, Lin, and Huang, DPP Central Executive Committee member Kuo Tsai-chin (郭再欽), Yuan Shan International Development Co. Chair Yang Chih-chiang (楊志強), and Kao Mei-hsien (高玫仙) were cleared of wrongdoing on Monday.

Kao is the wife of Tainan city councilor Li Wen-chun (李文俊), who along with fellow councilor Lee Chen-kuo (李鎮國), was expelled from the KMT after supporting Chiu for speaker in the 2022 election.

Chiu and Lin will now continue in their roles in the Tainan City Council. Tainan prosecutors said they have yet to decide whether or not to appeal the ruling.