Taitung Council Speaker Wu Chun-li (吳俊立) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who is running for the top job in Taitung County as an independent candidate, was released on NT$1million (US$29,800) bail yesterday morning after he was detained on Saturday for questioning as part of a vote-buying investigation.
Taoyuan prosecutors raided the KMT's Taitung branch office on Saturday and seized NT$400,000 in cash and several electoral registers. Prosecutors had suspected that the party was ready to conduct vote-buying for Wu in the build up to Saturday's election. In a bid to to gather more evidence, prosecutors also raided Wu's Taichung Council office and his election headquarters early yesterday morning, seizing more cash.
After the raids, prosecutors immediately summoned Wu for questioning, releasing him on bail at 7am yesterday.
PHOTO: CHANG TSUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Wu told local reporters that he was innocent and he would continue his campaign after his release.
In response, the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) caucus whip, Jao Yung-ching (趙永清), called on KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday to take immediate action rather than waiting to see if Wu is convicted.
"Bail being set at NT$1 million means this is a serious matter. I don't think prosecutors would impose such a large amount unless they are pretty sure of illegal practices," Jao said.
As many KMT's candidates or their family members are under suspicion of vote-buying, Jao said that Ma must make public his stance on the issue and mete out punishments accordingly.
Apart from Wu, Jao singled out the KMT's candidate in Nantou County, Nantou City Mayor Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿). Lee's wife, Chien Su-tuan (簡素端), is suspected of conducting vote-buying activities on his behalf.
Chien had reportedly been giving out free gifts in order to persuade potential voters to support her husband since July. Chien, however, has denied the allegations and is now out on bail of NT$1.5 million.
Jao, a former KMT member, said that as far as he knows, many KMT local chapters have been conducting vote-buying. Although Wu is running as an independent, he believes that the slush money discovered at the KMT's local chapter is related to Wu's campaign.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,