Security for the year-end local elections and cross-strait talks in December in Taichung City will be the priorities for the National Police Agency (NPA), Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday.
“Ensuring year-end local elections run smoothly is a priority for the police force,” Jiang told police officials during a meeting on public security at the NPA. “It not only means that officers should work closely with prosecutors and investigators on cracking down on election irregularities, but also means that police agencies must guarantee the personal safety of all candidates.”
Jiang’s remarks came one day after a woman in Changhua County claimed she was sexually assaulted and threatened so she would not run for the county councilor seat in the year-end elections.
The woman, who has remained anonymous, said she had planned to run in December but a man surnamed Hung (洪) sexually violated her and took pictures of her naked, threatening to publicize the nude photos if she registered to run for the councilor’s seat in the year-end elections.
She also claimed that Hung told her to buy back the pictures for NT$1 million (US$30,700) if she insisted on running in the election.
Hung denied the accusation, but has been indicted for the threats and violating the Election and Recall Act of Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Meanwhile, Jiang also asked the police to make sure that December’s meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) runs smoothly.
“But [the NPA] also needs to make sure that civil rights and the public’s freedom are respected,” he said.
When Chen visited Taiwan in November last year for talks with Chiang, massive demonstrations followed Chen, leading to serious clashes between demonstrators and police.
Protestors accused the government of violating freedom of expression, as police officers would not allow the display of certain slogans or even the Republic of China flag near Chen.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS