《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Hau offers to reward tipsters on poll bribes

By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin （郝龍斌） yesterday said he is offering NT$200,000 in cash to whistle-blowers who provide information on irregularities, including bribes, in the party’s chairperson election.

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The former Taipei mayor’s offer came amid allegations of bribery ahead of the May 20 election.

“The chairperson election has been dogged by scandals ranging from recruitment of new members with criminal backgrounds and an unusual surge in the number of new members to the bribery allegations,” Hau wrote on Facebook.

The scandals have not only worried the KMT’s friends and made its enemies happy, but made the party a laughing stock and put its solidarity and development at great risk, he said.

The party should establish a whistle-blower and reward mechanism and have its legislative caucus draw up an amendment to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act （公職人員選舉罷免法） to cover party leadership elections, Hau said.

“I hereby take the initiative to offer a NT$200,000 cash reward in the hope of inviting all party comrades to help the KMT ‘catch the ghosts,’” Hau wrote.

Another of the six chairperson candidates, former KMT vice chairman Steve Chan （詹啟賢）, yesterday asked why former vice president Wu Den-yih （吳敦義） was the only one of the six to react strongly to the bribery allegations.

Chan on Friday said that offering money in return for support from party representatives and councilors has been widespread in the run-up to the election, and that some candidates have offered deals and free banquets to woo supporters.

Wu on Saturday said that Chan’s allegations were detrimental to the KMT because they were unsubstantiated and could make all candidates suspects.

“Is it not weird that all but one of the candidates agreed with what I said, and the only exception reacted so strongly to my remarks?” Chan said yesterday on the sidelines of a forum with KMT representatives in Taipei.

It is no secret that several tour buses are hired every day to take potential supporters to restaurants, he said.

Chan urged the party’s headquarters to investigate the allegations instead of passively waiting to catch someone red-handed.

He also encouraged KMT grassroots members to come forward if they are aware of any illegal activities.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES