Seven Kaohsiung City councilors will have to leave their posts within three weeks after a court yesterday upheld their convictions related to the 2002 vote-buying scandal in the election of council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (
The Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung branch also overturned a 24-month sentence against Vice Speaker Tsai Sung-hsiung (
Prosecutors last year indicted 34 councilors for accepting NT$5 million each from Chu to vote for him in the December 2002 speakership election. Of the indicted councilors, 24 were convicted.
Chu was sentenced to 42 months in prison for vote-buying in November, but he had already fled the country after being convicted of paying voters NT$500 each in a city council election earlier in December.
The court yesterday upheld the 20-month sentence for councillor Yang Min-lang (
The court reduced Kao Tzeng-ying's (
Huang Fang-jen (
Neither the councilors nor prosecutors may appeal these sentences, although the councilors can pay NT$300 per day in lieu of going to prison.
As it takes 10 days to deliver the verdicts, the councilors will have to give up their posts within the next three weeks.
Tsai had been convicted on two charges -- taking a bribe and asking colleagues to do the same. The court yesterday found him innocent of the charges, but left the option open to prosecutors to appeal the verdict on the second charge.
"The judges did not discover sufficient evidence to prove that Tsai accepted the bribe money. As a result, they decided to drop the charges against him," said Wang Kwang-chao (
Wang also said that the judges had not considered a promise by prosecutors to suspend the sentences of any councilors who admitted taking bribes.
"The judges affirmed their [the councilors'] hard work for their voters during their terms as Kaohsiung City councilors. However, the judges also believed that their accepting the bribes has brought disgrace to their titles and their voters," Wang said.
The convictions increase the likelihood that Kaohsiung will have to hold city council elections this year. If more than 14 councilors leave their posts, an election must be held. Ten will have left their posts once the seven councilors leave.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS