The lists of voters that the pan-blue alliance copied as part of its effort to discredit the presidential elections last year were used as part of a widespread vote-buying effort in Changhua County during the legislative elections, Changhua County Commissioner Wong Chin-chu (
Wong made the allegation during the DPP's central standing committee meeting yesterday. During the meeting, Wellington Koo (顧立雄) -- the attorney who helped President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) win the pan-blue-initiated lawsuit challenging their re-election in March -- made his final report on the lawsuit.
Wong said that the DPP should not have allowed Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members who were not qualified lawyers to copy voter rolls -- an action which the KMT's attorneys claimed was part of their effort to "collect evidence."
"I suspect the KMT took advantage of the rolls to implement a vote-buying scheme in Changhua County, because the voter participation rate during the legislative elections in Changhua was as high as 67 percent -- 9 percent more than the national voting rate," Wong said.
DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), whose professional background is in law, also said that he was upset that the DPP agreed that the pan-blue camp did not have to provide evidence of its claims to initiate the lawsuit -- which is the normal practice required by law -- saying this had undermined basic legal principles.
"However, the president acceded to the pan-blue camp's demands, just because he wanted to ease the instability aroused by the election disputes," Chang said.
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
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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