Former Central Election Commission (CEC) chairman Chen In-chin (陳英鈐) yesterday apologized to voters and resigned over criticisms surrounding long delays at polling booths for the nine-in-one elections on Saturday.
“As the senior official, I must accept all responsibility and as I have said before, I will engage in sincere introspection,” Chen said before announcing his resignation.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka confirmed that Chen’s resignation has been accepted.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
With people still lined up as polling stations were scheduled to close, the commission allowed voting to continue, with some stations remaining open while others were counting ballots.
Polling stations become ballot-counting stations immediately upon the completion of voting, according to Article 57 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Chen consulted 15,000 polling stations nationwide before Saturday to ask about the possibility of adding more screens to accommodate more voters, but only 3,500 of the stations were large enough for additional screens, he said.
Polling station locations were already determined when additional referendums were added and it was too late to change them, he said.
The commission asked people to be sure that they understood the referendums before entering voting booths to speed things up, he said.
“It really was too long to make people wait, but overall, the process remained quite orderly,” he said.
Chen rejected reports that ballots were being counted at polling stations that were still open.
However, those who were in line before 4pm were permitted to vote, which was in accordance with the law, he said.
Asked why the commission did not wait until all polling stations closed before starting to count ballots, Chen said the law stipulates that the changeover must be done at each station immediately following the completion of voting.
There have also been incidents in previous elections of polling stations starting their counts at different times, he said, adding that he welcomed input on whether voting would be affected by this.
Taipei’s 1,563 polling stations had all finished with voting by 7:46pm — just after Taoyuan, which finished at 7:29pm.
Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) polling station finished counting votes at about 11pm — the first of the city’s 1,563 stations to do so — and by 2:35am yesterday all stations in Taipei were finished, 10 hours, 35 minutes from when polls opened.
The last polling station nationwide to finish counting was Dayun Bisian Temple (大雲碧仙寺) in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), which finished at 2:39am.
“This is the first time the process has taken this long,” said a polling station worker in Taipei, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Lin Mei-lun (林美倫), director of a Taipei elections supervisory task force, said she would raise concerns with the commission over the poor execution of this year’s elections.
The referendums must be separated from the mayoral and commissioner elections, or an electronic system adopted for referendum voting, Lin said.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
BOOST IN CONFIDENCE: The sale sends a clear message of support for Taiwan and dispels rumors that US President Donald Trump ‘sold out’ the nation, an expert said The US government on Thursday announced a possible sale to Taiwan of fighter jet parts, which was estimated to cost about US$330 million, in a move that an expert said “sends a clear message of support for Taiwan” amid fears that Washington might be wavering in its attitude toward Taipei. It was the first announcement of an arms sale to Taiwan since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this year. The proposed package includes non-standard components, spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, as well repair and return support for the F-16, C-130 and Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft,
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
RSS