With prosecutors digging up more evidence of "black-gold" in the Kaohsiung City speakership race through raids on suspects' homes, party leaders yesterday vowed to discipline members involved in vote-buying.
Spokesmen for the country's three major political parties said yesterday that they support the prosecutors' investigation into the conduct of Kaohsiung City councilors.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
After councilors from the pan-blue camp supported scandal-ridden independent councilor Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) in the race, just a week after KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) proclaimed his party free of "black-gold," the party now says it is prepared to lose all its seats on Kaohsiung City Council, save one.
As Chu won the speakership with 25 votes, it is believed that he received 11 votes from KMT councilors, seven from PFP councilors, and eight from independent ones.
KMT, which has 12 seats on the council, has scheduled to release on Tuesday a list of councilors that it found voted for Chu.
The PFP has also vowed to get tough with its councilors who supported Chu.
"We will strictly discipline any party members found guilty by the prosecutors," PFP spokesman Hsieh Kong-ping (
Meanwhile, the DPP, which has 14 seats on the council, yesterday sent Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) to Kaohsiung to deal with the incident. The move comes after cash suspected of being used in vote-buying was found at the residence of DPP council caucus whip Jan Yung-lung (詹永龍).
DPP legislators yesterday appealed to the government and party officials to strictly punish those involved in vote-buying.
"If the party doesn't strictly punish those councilors, DPP will be kicked out," DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) told reporters yesterday.
Tuan said that the nine DPP councilors who had attempted to supported Chu should be under suspicion.
DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) said, "whether those DPP councilors voted for Chu is not an issue anymore. The issue is whether they received money for votes.
"The DPP should let its members understand that if they received money for votes, their political lives will be over," Lee said.
TSU spokesman Hsiao Kuan-yu (蕭貫譽), meanwhile, criticized the three main parties over the incident.
"The DPP's local members are opportunistic and fail to examine their own conduct, while the PFP and KMT just don't mean what they said about unseating Chu," he said.
"Kaohsiung City Council won't be able to operate smoothly in the future. But prosecutors should investigate the case, otherwise politicians will totally ignore law and order," he added.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard