By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the ruling of the second retrial and gave People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lin Cheng-er (林正二) a final sentence of a 20-month prison term for buying votes in his legislative election campaign in 2007.
Central Election Commission Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) said that although Lin was declared guilty of vote-buying in the election for the seventh legislature, not the current, eighth legislature, he would still lose his status as a lawmaker as soon as the commission receives the verdict, since Lin has also been deprived of his civil rights by the court.
“No matter why or when he committed the misconduct that led to him being deprived of his civil rights, it takes effect when the verdict is handed down and will remove him from the post,” Teng said.
This will leave his party’s legislative caucus with only two lawmakers. This could place the PFP caucus in jeopardy, because establishing a party caucus requires a minimum of three lawmakers.
Lin was on Wednesday indicted in a separate case by the Taichung Prosecutors’ Office. He and his aide were accused of requesting and receiving kickbacks of at least NT$6.29 million (US$210,000) from local construction projects while colluding with local government officials and councilors in 2006.
Lin was accused of laying on a feast for Aboriginal leaders in Taoyuan County’s Dayuan Township (大園) during his election campaign in November 2007, but was found not guilty in the second trial and the first retrial, before the second retrial overturned the previous ruling.
Judges in the second trial said that Lin’s feast had constituted an act of vote buying.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin