Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said yesterday the party would not address the case of legislative caucus whip Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) for the time being, despite a district court ruling invalidating his election on the grounds of alleged vote-buying.
Wu said the KMT would respect the verdict of Yunlin District Court that nullified Chang’s election in a general poll a year ago.
NO PLANS
He said, however, that the party had no plans to refer his case to its disciplinary committee, as it had yet to be heard in a higher court.
However, the KMT would assess whether Chang should continue to serve as KMT whip in the legislative session, which is scheduled to conclude at the end of next month, he said.
After learning of the ruling on Friday, Chang said he would appeal the case to the Taiwan High Court.
ELECTIONS
Chang won a regional legislative seat in Yunlin County in January, but his defeated opponent, Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) of the Democratic Progressive Party, accused him of vote-buying and filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the election results.
The local district court said in its ruling that Chang was aware of and had taken part in a vote-buying scheme organized by his father, Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), the head of a local irrigation association, to solicit votes by offering cash bribes to voters.
Chang Hui-yuan was found guilty of election bribery and sentenced to five years and eight months in jail.
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
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