By Eryk Michael Smith / Staff
KAOHSIUNG — In a revelation made just weeks before the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) conducts a telephone poll to select its nominees for seats in the Kaohsiung City Council Zuoying-Nanzih (左營/楠梓) constituency, media reported today that one of the candidates was convicted of drunk driving in 2025.
In Taiwan, city and county council constituencies are multi-member and elected “first past the post”, with the number of seats in a constituency based on the population. The Zuoying-Nanzih constituency has nine seats, and in the 2022 election, three DPP candidates were elected, along with five from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and one independent. The DPP plans to nominate four candidates this year, as it did in 2022.
Huang Chen-lin (黃偵琳), one of the candidates seeking a nomination, was sentenced to two months in prison, commutable to a fine (得易科罰金), plus NT$5,000.
Political analyst and lawyer Ross Feingold explained to Kaohsiung Times that “Criminal case judgments are available online, including the judgment in Huang’s case. In other words, the judgment was available to anyone who had bothered to search the court database for Huang’s name, making it likely someone brought this to the attention of the media now in order to damage Huang’s chances of winning a nomination”.
Facts of the Case and Sentencing Details
In Taiwan, short custodial sentences are often converted to a fine based on a daily rate set by the court (typically around NT$1,000–NT$3,000 per day). For a two-month sentence, that could mean roughly NT$60,000–NT$180,000 if fully commuted, plus the NT$5,000 fine.
She was found guilty of endangering public safety through drunk driving. The ruling is final as neither prosecutors nor Huang filed an appeal.
According to the court judgment, the incident occurred on the night of Lunar New Year’s Eve, Jan. 28, 2025. Huang visited a friend’s residence on Zili 1st Road in Sanmin District and, in the early hours of the following morning, rode a scooter while under the influence of alcohol. At around 2 a.m., she collided with a woman surnamed Yang at the intersection of Nenjiang Street and Liaoning 2nd Street, causing minor abrasions.
Police administered breathalyzer tests at the scene and recorded Huang’s blood alcohol concentration at 0.33 milligrams per liter, above the legal limit. Although the injured party did not press charges for negligent injury, drunk driving is a public offense, and prosecutors proceeded with an indictment.
The Kaohsiung District Court ruled that public awareness campaigns in recent years have stressed that drinking and driving threatens not only the driver but also the safety of other road users. The judge found that Huang knowingly took the risk and therefore declined to grant probation. However, the court considered her lack of prior convictions and her reconciliation with the injured party in determining the sentence.
Acknowledgement of Wrongdoing and Anti-DUI Pledges
In a statement on her Facebook page, Huang acknowledged wrongdoing and said she had fully faced the legal consequences. “I made a mistake. I did drink that night and still chose to ride home, misjudging my condition,” she said. She added that she had reached a settlement with the injured party and offered apologies and concern.
Huang said drunk driving should not be minimized or rationalized regardless of distance traveled, adding that someone seeking public office should hold themselves to higher standards. She apologized to the public and supporters, stating that she had “failed to uphold the bottom line of public safety.”
As part of corrective measures, Huang pledged that on any day with scheduled engagements, she would abstain from alcohol and rely on arranged drivers or ride-hailing services, with records kept for accountability. She also said she would participate in long-term anti-drunk-driving advocacy and strengthen related warnings in future campaign materials, especially during holiday seasons.
Candidate Backgrounds
Huang is the daughter of former Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Chao-hsing (黃昭星). She previously worked on constituent services when now Interior Minister Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) was a legislator. Huang was a DPP nominee in the Zuoying-Nanzih constituency in 2022, but was the “highest loser”, missing out on the ninth seat by 525 votes.
The DPP primary for Kaohsiung City Council will be held through telephone polling from March 2 to March 8. Five contenders have registered for the DPP’s four nominations, including Huang Wen-chih (黃文志) and Lee Ya-hui (李雅慧) (both incumbent councilors), former Kaohsiung Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Yin Li (尹立), former Youth Bureau Director Chang Yi-li (張以理), and Huang Chen-lin.
Vetting and Standards
Still, the case has drawn renewed attention to candidate vetting standards and the political sensitivity of drunk driving offenses in Taiwan. For example, the DPP’s Kolas Yotaka (谷辣斯·尤達卡) won an at-large seat in the Legislative Yuan in the 2016 election, despite a 2014 drunk driving conviction, which was not publicly known until she resigned her Legislative Yuan seat in 2018 to become Executive Yuan spokesperson. In 2022, the Taiwan People’s Party withdrew its nomination and terminated the party membership of its nominee for the mayor of Zhubei City in Hsinchu County after he was charged with drunk driving, and in 2018, the KMT withdrew the nomination of a city council candidate in Taipei City who was charged with drunk driving.
However, office holders and/or candidates who have criminal records for charges other than drunk driving, from the DPP, KMT, and TPP, are also a fact of both local and national Taiwan politics.
