Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文), whose election victory was annulled on vote-buying charges, urged the KMT yesterday not to be ungrateful to his family after the KMT’s Yunlin chapter disqualified his father from a legislative by-election because of his alleged involvement in his son’s vote-buying.
He accused Yunlin prosecutors of conspiring to frame his father Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), head of an irrigation association in Yunlin, as part of their investigation into the vote-buying allegations.
Chang Sho-wen showed a press conference at the legislature video footage of a conversation between a lawyer and a witness in his father’s case, in which the lawyer says they must “discuss with prosecutors what to say against Chang Hui-yuan.”
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
“[Prosecutors] fabricated witness statements and colluded [with witnesses] in Chang Hui-yuan’s case,” Chang Sho-wen said. “Mr Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he hoped future politicians will have integrity, ideals, love for the people and principles. Doesn’t Chang Hui-yuan fit the profile?”
Chang Sho-wen was found guilty of election bribery at his first trial in Yunlin. Prosecutors alleged that his father solicited votes for his son by offering cash bribes to voters during last year’s legislative elections.
The Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court annulled Chang Sho-wen’s election victory on June 30 on the ground that he was aware of and had taken part in the vote-buying scheme allegedly organized by his father. The annulment was a civil suit.
Chang Hui-yuan, who is in his 70s, then registered in the KMT’s primary for the by-election.
The KMT’s Yunlin chapter ruled in a preliminary review on Sunday to disqualify Chang Hui-yuan as a result of the party’s “black gold exclusion clause,” which states that members who are found guilty of corruption in their first trial cannot to be nominated for any elections.
“We could have announced that we would run as an independent candidate, but we would rather not do that because we did not do anything wrong,” Chang Sho-wen said.
“We are faithful party members. I cannot be ungrateful to the KMT, but if the KMT chooses to be ungrateful to us, we will have no choice but to follow the voice of grassroots supporters,” he said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing