2 men indicted for signature buying in Pingtung County

Taipei, Jan. 15 (CNA) Two suspects, including a Pingtung ward chief, were indicted Monday by prosecutors for buying signatures for business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) to help him reach the level of endorsement needed to run in Taiwan's Jan. 13 presidential election.

The ward chief, identified by his last name Chiu (邱), was found to have paid his wife, surnamed Chang (張), and a man surnamed Wu (吳) NT$200 (US$6.39) apiece for their signatures late last year, the Pingtung District Prosecutors Office said in a news release.

Chiu then proceeded to ask Wu to help him with the petition drive, to which the latter agreed and subsequently found four other people, identified by their last names Chou (周), Yang (楊), Tsai (蔡) and Yeh (葉), to help out, prosecutors said.

Chou, Yang, Tsai, and Yeh were later able to garner and hand over 30 signatures to Chiu, prosecutors said.

The district prosecutors office said Chiu was placed in detention in November last year and held incommunicado, while their investigation found the ward chief and Wu had committed offenses against election laws.

The prosecutors office therefore decided to charge the two under the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act for "arranging bribes to compel a person to sign the candidacy petition of a specified individual."

Meanwhile, prosecutors have ordered Chang and the four other individuals to be subject to one-year deferred prosecutions for their involvement in the case. During that period, they are required to make payments of NT$30,000 each into the national coffers and will receive two educational lectures on legal matters, prosecutors said.