Former Kaohsiung City Councilor Lai Wen-te's 3-Year, 8-Month Sentence for Vote-Buying Upheld in Second Trial

(CNA, Kaohsiung, May 21, by reporter Hung Hsueh-kuang) Former Kuomintang (KMT) Kaohsiung City Councilor Lai Wen-te, who was suspected of buying votes for between NT$1,200 and NT$10,000 per vote during the 2022 election period, had his appeal rejected today by the Kaohsiung High Court, which upheld the original verdict. The first-instance Ciaotou District Court had sentenced him to 3 years and 8 months in prison and deprived him of his civil rights for 4 years for violating the Public Officials Election and Recall Act. The Ciaotou District Court's first-instance judgment stated that in order to be elected in the Kaohsiung City 14th electoral district city councilor election held on November 26, 2022, Lai personally visited the residences of voters between October and November of the same year, delivering cash payments of NT$10,000, NT$1,200, and NT$2,000 respectively to three voters, asking for their votes. During the trial at the Ciaotou District Court, Lai denied bribery, arguing that the cash given to voters was 'work fees' and labor allowances for helping with canvassing and inspecting wind-blown flags during the campaign. The voters who received the money also corroborated that the funds were wages. Lai presented documents such as labor allowance receipts and sign-in books for his office's guidance counselors as evidence. The judge found that the voters who received the money were not official employees of Lai's campaign headquarters, and most had full-time jobs or no need for part-time work. One voter received a NT$10,000 reward for less than 10 hours of total work, including canvassing and flag inspection. The payment was clearly disproportionate to the hours worked and inconsistent with the normal practice of a campaign's accounting department issuing salaries uniformly. The judge determined that Lai had disguised bribes as work fees to sway or solidify voters' intentions, establishing a clear quid pro quo. He was therefore sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison and deprived of his civil rights for 4 years for the crime of delivering a bribe under Article 99, Paragraph 1 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act. After reviewing the case, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch Court today rejected the appeal, stating that the original judgment's findings of fact and application of law were not improper, thus upholding the original sentence. The detailed reasoning for the judgment has not yet been released. The case can still be appealed. (Editor: Chang Ya-ching)