Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) yesterday pledged to crack down on vote-buying ahead of elections of agricultural and fishery associations (農漁會).
"The elections will take place after the Lunar New Year holiday, so it is likely that candidates will bribe voters during the holiday," Shih said. "But I pledge that there is no `legal holiday' during the holiday; prosecutors nationwide will crack down on any vote-buying activities."
The Supreme Court Prosecutors Office will form a task force today to lead the crack down activity, and district prosecutors' offices nationwide will also form a task force today, Shih added.
The head of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, Chu Nan (
"The Kaohsiung Prosecutors' Office has received a number of accusations ... and we will investigate these cases," he added.
In addition, Chu said, prosecutors will visit and communicate with electoral candidates in order to deter vote-buying.
Shih said that "clean agricultural and fishery associations' elections would create cleaner and healthier associations."
The agricultural and fishery associations have been seen as roots of `black gold' politics.
Local political faction leaders have been competing for leading posts in agricultural and fishery associations, and using the associations' credit cooperatives as illegal financial resources to bribe voters in a range of popular elections, Shih said.
Shih added that credit cooperatives of agricultural and fishery associations frequently grant illegal loans to people from local factions, creating the potential for financial crises.
The agricultural and fishery associations' elections will take place separately after the Lunar New Year holiday. The associations elect directors every four years.
President Chen planned to reform these associations and eradicate their credit cooperatives in 2002, but failed due to a demonstration in which over 120,000 people protested against the plan.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man