With polling day only four days away, the government appeared keen yesterday to signal that the judicial system remains unaffected by election rhetoric and the campaign against vote-buying.
The nation's most senior police officer announced yesterday that the case clear-up rate is currently higher than last year, while the premier called for hoarders of rice wine to be sued.
Director-General of the National Police Administration Wang Chin-wang (
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) also voiced his ministry's appreciation for the efforts of the more than 70,000 police officers nationwide who are involved in the effort to drive bribery out of the electoral process.
"Actually, what our police officers have done is simply to incorporate this anti-vote-buying action into their daily routines," he said. "We have not altered our normal state of alertness or priorities because of this initiative. Also, on Dec. 1, apart from regular police officers, an additional 36,000 police officers will provide security at polling stations nationwide. In the meantime, these officers are on stand-by for possible protests or violence."
"The case-handling rate for this year is 93.94 percent, another statistic which demonstrates that the police definitely have the ability to maintain law and order, even though a lot of them are also busy investigating vote-buying cases."
The police's case-handling rate for the whole of last year was 92 percent.
Wang said that police expect to make arrests soon in the high-profile kidnapping last weekend of Taoyuan County Councilor Tseng Chung-yi (曾忠義).
The police, he said, are regarding the crime as "election-related."
Tseng was kidnapped on his way home from a campaign rally in Linkou township, Taipei County, on Saturday. His kidnappers asked NT$150 million in ransom for his release.
He was released on Monday morning and his family refuses to say whether they paid the kidnappers.
In a separate announcement, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"The ministry's National Police Administration has discovered more than 870,000 bottles of rice wine which were illegally stored," said the Minister of the Interior, Chang Po.
"We want to urge the Ministry of Justice, the National Police Administration and the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board to work together to quickly resolve the current shortage of rice wine," said Chang.
"We want to ensure that the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board is distributing rice wine to all local grocery stores fairly and equally."
"Also, we want to make sure that investigators catch those who are storing rice wine deliberately."
"This work should be done within a month, starting from today," Chang said.
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)