Although most polling stations around the country reported an orderly voting day yesterday, there were some incidents and altercations.
In all, 65 violations were reported, with 49 cases of referendum or presidential ballots being torn up and 16 instances where presidential or referendum ballots were carried out of polling stations, the National Police Agency (NPA) said.
Although voters were free to refuse to pick up ballots if they did not wish to vote, defacing ballots or removing them from polling stations are both illegal.
While defacing a presidential ballot may result in a fine of up to NT$50,000 (US$1,500), defacing a referendum ballots may lead to maximum of one year in jail or fines for up to NT$15,000, the agency said.
Among voters who broke the law were former head of the Ministry of the Interior's Construction and Planning Administration Pan Li-men (潘禮門), who tore up his presidential ballot at a polling station in Taipei, as he found he had accidentally selected the wrong candidate.
The 70-year-old Pan was charged with violations of the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法) and would be fined, police said.
Meanwhile, Penghu prosecutors arrested Magong Mayor Hsu Lee-ying (楊麗音) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and 73 Penghu residents yesterday on suspicion of involvement in vote-buying.
Hsu was suspected of hiring a boat to transport 73 individuals living in Magong back to their hometown in the county's islets to vote, police said.
The 73 were arrested as they arrived on the islets, while Hsu was arrested in Magong.
Prosecutors said they were in the process of determining if Hsu provided the free trip and asked them to vote for a certain candidate in return.
NPA Director-General Hou You-yi (侯友宜) told a press conference yesterday that more than 60,000 police officers and 30,000 volunteers had been deployed to the nation's 14,401 polling stations.
Amid calm at polling stations, police augmented security at DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) headquarters in the afternoon.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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