He had run unsuccessfully for president of Taiwan as a maverick candidate, promising to clean up the island’s political system. Now, he has been officially accused of corruption.
In an indictment released on Thursday, prosecutors in Taiwan accused the former presidential candidate, Ko Wen-je, of having taken bribes related to a property development while he was mayor of Taipei.
The prosecution against Mr. Ko appears likely to fan political divisions in Taiwan. The island’s president, Lai Ching-te, and his Democratic Progressive Party have been at odds with the main opposition Nationalist Party, as well as Mr. Ko’s newer and smaller Taiwan People’s Party, or T.P.P. The Nationalists and Mr. Ko’s party together hold a narrow majority in Taiwan’s legislature, hemming in Mr. Lai’s power.
The indictment of Mr. Ko does not mean that his party is bound to collapse. “What’s important to keep in mind is that the sort of political force that he awakened in Taiwan is not going to go away,” said Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Taiwan University in Taipei. “If anything, T.P.P. supporters who still identify with the party are not going to be swayed, because they haven’t been swayed yet by Ko’s arrest.”
Mr. Ko, 65, was a high-profile mayor of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, from 2014 to 2022. He founded the Taiwan People’s Party in 2019, arguing that neither the Democratic Progressive Party nor the Nationalists were heeding voters’ concerns about government incompetence and abuses, rising housing costs and other issues.
Mr. Ko came in third in the presidential election in January. But his relatively strong showing — winning over a quarter of the vote — and his party’s victories in legislative elections indicated that he would remain influential in Taiwanese politics and perhaps contest the next presidential election in 2028.
Months after the election, though, Mr. Ko’s political fortunes began to unravel after his Taiwan People’s Party disclosed poor accounting and murky handling of donations from supporters. Prosecutors arrested and detained Mr. Ko in September as they investigated whether he had used his power as mayor to illegally approve increasing the floor area of a commercial building project.
In the indictment, prosecutors in Taipei said that Mr. Ko had taken over $500,000 in bribes in exchange for the floor area increase, and alleged that he also misused campaign funds. They said they would seek a prison sentence of 28½ years for Ko, and also laid out related charges against 10 other people.
Mr. Ko has denied the charges and said that he was the victim of a political vendetta mounted by Mr. Lai’s government.
After Mr. Ko’s arrest, thousands of supporters gathered in protests, arguing that the allegations were flimsy and politically motivated, and that seemingly corrupt politicians from Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party had been spared investigations.
Leading members of Taiwan People’s Party have stuck by Mr. Ko. Their party has regularly aligned itself with the main opposition Nationalist Party in Taiwan’s legislature, pushing through acts that could weaken Mr. Lai’s presidential power and this week rejecting his nominations for Taiwan’s Constitutional Court.
Yang Kuei-chih, a lawyer in Taipei who has closely followed the case against Mr. Ko, said the specificity and breadth of the charges against him may dampen some support for Mr. Ko. “After all, the People’s Party is an emerging political party that has emphasized how different it is from the traditional political parties,” Mr. Yang said in an interview.
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