A former foreign correspondent's claim that votes in Taiwan's Hualien County are all bought has triggered a prosecutors' probe and an angry pushback from local politicians, putting the county's reputation and Taiwan's election credibility in the spotlight.

• Kathrin Hille, formerly of the Financial Times, said in a TV interview that all the votes in Hualien are bought.
• Hualien prosecutors have opened a case based on the news reports to look into it.
• KMT caucus leader Fu Kun-chi, who comes from Hualien, called the claim an insult to local voters and to Taiwan's democracy without hard proof of who, what, when and where.
• All three candidates for Hualien county chief want either concrete evidence or a clearing of the county's name.
• Fu urged the journalist to hand any evidence to prosecutors and warned against foreign media being used as a tool to smear candidates before the vote.

Outlook: Prosecutors will look for evidence, and with a county chief race under way the row is likely to stay political rather than legal.