Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (
Chen said she was looking forward to the final verdict of the lawsuit because the uncertainty surrounding the case had hurt Kaohsiung's municipal construction projects and the rights of the city's residents.
"The lives of residents will not return to normal until the final verdict of the lawsuit is pronounced," she said during a question-and-answer session in Kaohsiung City Council yesterday morning.
Chen was fielding questions from People First Party City Councilor Yang Se-yu (楊色玉) about the city government's plan to maintain order in response to the Taiwan High Court's announcement of the final decision tomorrow regarding her appeal against a ruling to annul last December's result.
Chen yesterday urged people who support or oppose her to stay calm about the verdict and not to gather together around the court to protest.
Chen guaranteed that she would fulfill her promises to Kaohsiung residents if she wins the lawsuit and that she would accept defeat if she loses.
The Kaohsiung District Court on June 15 ruled in favor of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英), who had accused Chen of violating campaign regulations and asked that her victory be annulled.
The district court annulled the result of the December election, requiring that another election be held.
Chen then filed an appeal with Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung branch. The high court is scheduled to hand down the final verdict at 4pm tomorrow.
The verdict in the second trial is not subject to appeal, and Chen cannot join any by-election if she loses.
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung City Police Bureau will control traffic around the high court.
The police bureau started to lay barricades around the court yesterday to protect it for possible riots as a result of the verdict tomorrow.
"We will deploy about 800 police officers to maintain public security tomorrow," said Hsu Tung-li (許董利), a captain of Kaohsiung's Kushan (鼓山) patrol team, adding that the police bureau will have about 480 other officers as reinforcement.
Meanwhile, the KMT said yesterday it would renominate Huang as its candidate if the court annuls Chen's victory.
The Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung branch is expected to announce its verdict around 4pm tomorrow.
KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (
"Huang should've won the election if it wasn't for the DPP's illegitimate tactics. We believe that what should belong to Huang would be returned to him in the end," Wu said yesterday at the KMT headquarters.
Wu said the party will respect the Central Election Committee's decision on the date of the by-election if the verdict was in favor of Huang again.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods