In a bid to crack down on vote-buying in Saturday's Hualien County commissioner by-election, Minster of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
Meanwhile, National Police Administration (NPA) Director-General Chang Si-liang (張四良) said police in Hualien have already reported 119 possible vote-buying cases including some involving the campaigns of all three leading candidates.
Five candidates are competing for the seat: candidate No. 1, Independent Wu Kuo-tung (
Polls give Hsieh a comfortable lead over his two main rivals, Wu and You.
At a public security meeting in Hualien, Yu said he has transferred 464 police from Taipei and Kaohsiung cities to tackle vote-buying cases. The police will conduct frequent checks and searches 24 hours a day.
However, Yu's plan was immediately attacked by the opposition camp.
"The DPP is turning Hualien County into a police county," KMT Spokesman Alex Tsai (
In response to the criticism, Chang said the NPA will maintain its neutrality during the crackdown.
The police head also said that of the 119 vote-buying cases being dealt with by authorities, supporters of Hsieh, You and Wu are involved in at least some of them. According to Chang, local prosecutors are currently investigating these cases.
However, Chang's remarks were criticized as violating the "non-disclosure principle" of an ongoing investigation.
"The claim [of the possible cases] is bullshit!" said Yang Ta-chih (
The chief prosecutor also condemned the Ministry of the Interior and the NPA for constantly interfering with local prosecutors' investigations.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS