The mayor of Nantan, Kyoto Prefecture, and his son were arrested Sunday on suspicion of wining and dining voters in exchange for their votes in the mayoral election in February, police said.
But police said that Keiichi Nakagawa, 63, and his son Yoshinari, 34, have denied the allegation, saying they did not entertain anyone as part of the election campaign and that the participants at the meeting in question paid for their own expenses.
The two are suspected of having entertained several voters at a cost of 10,000 yen each in August last year to win their votes, violating the Public Offices Election Law, the police said.
The mayoral election was held on Feb. 19 after four towns merged. Nakagawa won the election by defeating three other candidates.