The Next magazine reported that incumbent DPP Legislator Huang Chien-hui from Taipei County opened 1,000 temporary fixed-line telephone accounts in order to raise the chances of being interviewed in the upcoming public opinion polls — a major factor in determining the winners in the primaries.

The magazine also claimed that similar tricks had been employed in Taichung County and Kaohsiung City.

Lin said any move to mark up one’s popularity ratings would be against the party rules.

He said any candidate found to be cheating would be disqualified from the primaries, and expelled from the party.

He said the party has also received similar complaints from southern Taiwan, but so far no irregularities concerning telephone accounts have been found.

But he said the party would suggest that the DPP anti-corruption election panel suspend the public opinion polls in Taipei County’s Second Electoral District, where Huang is running, and the panel would also interview Huang today.

Lin Shu-fen, a fellow contestant in Huang’s district, said such “unfair” opinion polls must be halted, and she called on the party to open an investigation. The polls in Taipei County were scheduled to start today.

Meanwhile, a candidate in Taipei County’s Fourth Electoral District, Wu Ping-jui, said he could not accept his defeat in the just-concluded public opinion polls in his area.

Wu said that he led his rival, incumbent Legislator Tsao Lai-wang, by a wide margin in the voting by party members.

Wu said a public opinion poll he had commissioned had shown that he led Tsao by 8 percent.

He alleged that his competitor might have cheated by setting up temporary phone accounts.

DPP Legislator Hsieh Hsin-ni, who lost the primary in a Taichung County district, claimed that one of the pollsters employed to conduct the surveys in her area had cheated.

She said she is awaiting the DPP Central Standing Committee’s final verdict on her complaint.

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