Kaohsiung prosecutors stepped up their campaign against vote-buying yesterday, detaining one person and releasing three others on bail for allegedly buying votes for a city councilor candidate.
The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved a prosecutors' request to detain a vote captain of Kaohsiung City councilor candidate Su Yu-chu (蘇玉柱), who is running for a seat representing Kaohsiung's fifth constituency, which includes Chienchen and Hsiaokang districts.
The four alleged vote-buyers are all employees of the Kaohsiung City Newspaper Stand Owners' Association, of which Su is the chairman.
Kaohsiung prosecutors claim that the four, Hsu Shu-chu (
Hsu, the most senior of the employees, refused to say whether they were acting under Su's instructions.
Prosecutor Lin Yung-fu (林永富) said that the police raided the association's office on Friday afternoon and discovered NT$600,000 in cash and a list of voters' names, all members of the association.
"Hsu could not clearly explain where this money came from and what it was for. That was why we decided to detain her," Lin said.
Lin summoned the suspects on Saturday afternoon. The court agreed to release Cheng and Wu on NT$50,000 bail and Chen on NT$30,000 bail.
In the past two weeks, two city councilors, a councilor candidate and four vote captains have been investigated for vote-buying ahead of the city councillor elections in Kaohsiung on Dec. 7.
In one case, candidate Hung Hsueh-hai (
Prosecutors have recommended a 18-month sentence for Hung, a 10-month sentence for Hsu and six months for Tsai. Hung and Su are competing in the same constituency.
On Saturday, prosecutors detained KMT City Councilor Chang Ray-te (張瑞德) and his brother Chang Chieh-min (張詰旻) for allegedly buying votes, also by treating voters to a free dinner.
And on Nov. 16, independent City Councilor Huang Fang-jen (黃芳仁) was detained for allegedly buying votes for NT$500 each.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
PEAK MONTHS: Data showed that on average 25 to 27 typhoons formed in the Pacific and South China seas annually, with about four forming per month in July and October One of three tropical depressions in the Pacific strengthened into a typhoon yesterday afternoon, while two others are expected to become typhoons by today, Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecaster Lee Ming-hsiang (李名翔) said yesterday. The outer circulation of Tropical Depression No. 20, now Typhoon Mitag, has brought light rain to Hualien, Taitung and areas in the south, Lee said, adding that as of 2pm yesterday, Mitag was moving west-northwest at 16kph, but is not expected to directly affect Taiwan. It was possible that Tropical Depression No. 21 would become a typhoon as soon as last night, he said. It was moving in a
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS