Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Wednesday last week made controversial comments in a radio interview, saying: “Aren’t all council speakers in northern Taiwan gangsters?” and “Tell me which one isn’t.”

He later said that his comments were “imprecise,” as he was mocking Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) for refusing to nominate a party member with a criminal record as a candidate for county commissioner, despite previously allowing him to run in a council speaker race, which he won.

Among the seven council speakers in northern Taiwan, three have criminal records, one had a prosecution dismissed and three have clean records.

The Taiwan Anti-Corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association on Wednesday released its findings on the criminal records of city or county councilor candidates in this month’s local elections.

Association chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a former lawmaker, reported that among the 1,677 councilor candidates, 195 — 11.6 percent — have been prosecuted or have criminal records.

The areas with the highest rates are Yunlin County, where 24.6 percent of candidates have been prosecuted or have criminal records, followed by Miaoli County at 20.8 percent, Kinmen County at 18.8 percent, Kaohsiung at 18 percent and Changhua County at 16.3 percent, the data show. Twelve cities and counties have more than 10 percent of councilor candidates with criminal records, and only Penghu County has...