Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen’s (張碩文) father completed the registration process to run in the Yunlin County by-election yesterday morning, vowing to finish Chang’s term as a legislator.
Chang Sho-wen, who won a regional legislative election in Yunlin County in January last year, lost his seat earlier this month after the High Court found him guilty of participating in a vote-buying scheme organized by his father and annulled the election result.
Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), director of Yunlin’s Irrigation Association, visited the KMT’s Yunlin branch yesterday to register for his candidacy in the party’s primary for the by-election.
PHOTO: CNA
“I can’t put up with it anymore. We’ve been patient during my son’s trial but we can’t be humiliated again and again,” Chang Hui-yuan said
Chang Hui-yuan was accompanied by Chang Sho-wen and local political heavyweights, including former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) and a group of supporters.
Chang Jung-wei issued his support for Chang Sho-wen and accused his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart of interfering with justice.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) met with Chang Jung-wei and Chang Sho-wen later in the afternoon to talk about the party candidate for the by-election.
Chang Hui-yuan will be competing with Wu Wei-chi (吳威志), an associate professor at Yunlin Technology University, who said he would represent the party better with a clean image.
Chang Hui-yuan was found guilty of vote-buying in the first trial. He appealed the case.
Chang Sho-wen complained to Wu about being wrongly convicted, and said his father would not rule out the possibility of taking part in the by-election as an independent candidate if the party did not nominate him.
The KMT will have to determine whether or not Chang Hui-yuan is qualified as a party candidate because the revised version of the KMT’s “black gold exclusion clause” (排黑條款) states that members who are found guilty of corruption at their initial trial are not to be nominated in any elections.
The KMT is scheduled to complete the nomination process on July 29.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s