After a violent incident occurred in front of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office early yesterday morning during a protest, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (
"We should not let the violence carried out by the pan-blue camp after the election set a precedent," Hsieh said at a press conference.
PHOTO: YUTZU CHIU, TAIPEI TIMES
The violence would be a very bad example, which might be imitated by losers in future elections, Hsieh said.
Hsieh urged the city's green-camp supporters to respect the right of the pan-blue camp to seek judicial assistance in clarifying suspicious points about the presidential election, in order to lower the risk of disintegrating the fragile foundation of mutual trust in society.
"The city government will leave all the pan-blue camp's accusations about polling stations to the court to decide," Hsieh said.
Yesterday morning, the Kaohsiung District Court sealed all ballot boxes in Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County. In addition, the court kept all information about electoral affairs, including the name lists of both voters and staff at the polling stations.
On Saturday evening, hundreds of pan-blue supporters lamenting the loss of the election gathered in front of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office to protest.
Led by Lin Shiang-nung (林享能), in charge of the pan-blue camp's campaign in Kaohsiung, residents sang songs loudly and shouted slogans agitatedly. Some even cried.
Lin listed nine doubtful points to do with the election, urging the government to seal ballot boxes for recounting. He claimed there were irregularities at many polling stations in the city.
A campaign truck rammed into the building's iron gate, injuring some residents and seven police officers on duty. More than 500 police officers were on duty to handle the violent incident. The crowd did not leave the scene until 4am yesterday morning.
Some pan-blue supporters were yesterday still offering evidence and clues about irregularities about the election to their camp's chapter in the city.
Hsieh Hsiu-neng (
Mayor Hsieh stressed that it was time for the city's residents to reveal their democratic self-discipline.
"At this moment, the foundation of mutual trust in our society is relatively fragile. Both sides have to respect each other in order to mend the cracks in society," Hsieh said.
He said that his planning for the city's future development would further receive support from the central government because the DPP remains the ruling party.
Hsieh said that he was sorry to see foreign media reports that Taiwan's political situation would be turbulent.
"In fact, I'd like to urge foreign investors to come to Kaohsiung to seek business opportunities because influential steel-making and petrochemical industries are here," Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that he would urge the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to keep in mind that both camps were supported by more than 6 million voters.
Hsieh believed that listening to different opinions would effectively mend the cracks in society created by the presidential election.
"Let's move on. Most people need a society allowing them to sleep well, eat well and make a profit from real-estate or stock market deals," Hsieh said.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS