Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday warned that the party would take legal action against members who make false accusations about the DPP's primary race.
The dispute over the DPP's primary to select a candidate for the position of Taichung County commissioner escalated as one of the candidates, former DPP legislator Lin Feng-hsi (
The protesters backed Lin's claim that a telephone poll conducted in the second part of the primary race was unfair. They demanded that the party redo the survey.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lin, who is competing with former DPP vice chairman Chiu Tai-san (
The DPP originally planned to announce its Taichung County candidate on Tuesday, and the telephone poll was done on Monday evening. According to the survey, Chiu came out on top and as such would have been selected as the candidate representing the DPP, but Lin said he suspects that one of the three survey companies falsified the results.
Lin's supporters, who came from Taichung County, wore red caps and yelled "the poll is unfair!" and "redo the survey!"
They lingered at the DPP's headquarters until about 4pm yesterday.
In reaction to Lin's gesture, DPP secretary-general Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said yesterday that he could not identify with a candidate who tries to boost his own campaign by leading his supporters in a protest at the DPP's headquarters, and who makes groundless accusations against the party.
"The breakdown of the monitor, which only lasted for 15 minutes, had nothing to do with the accusations of `manmade unfairness' Lin has made," Lee said.
He said that the monitor in question had been used to supervise the telephone survey, and was not connected to one of the machines used to conduct the actual survey.
"It makes no sense to connect such a simple malfunction with injustice," Lee said. "I cannot accept that Lin accused the DPP of manipulating the sampling of the telephone survey. [His claim] is absolutely untrue."
Lee said that the DPP has agreed to redo one of the three surveys because of the electronic malfunction.
However, Lin's request that the other two surveys should also be thrown out makes no sense, Lee said.
Wu Hsiang-jung (
"We can understand that candidates are highly concerned about their polls, but the DPP will take the necessary action to deal with libel," Wu said.
"We will not allow a specific person's irresponsible remarks to hurt the primary system which the DPP has used for decades, and which has won credibility," Lee said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS