Huang Jen-chu (黃仁杼), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate in the Taoyuan County legislative by-election, yesterday accused Jhongli Mayor Ye Bu-liang (葉步樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of hosting a dinner to bribe voters on behalf of KMT candidate Apollo Chen (陳學聖).
Ye held a “family dinner party” yesterday to celebrate the Year of the Tiger and thank his family for their support. KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) and Apollo Chen both attended.
The host prepared 80 tables for nearly 800 people.
Huang and a group of supporters protested outside the venue.
“Taoyuan County councilors, Jhongli City councilors, the county’s township chiefs and representatives of local civic organizations attended the party with King and Chen, yet Ye calls this a ‘family occasion,’” Huang told reporters outside.
“It is obviously bribery by the KMT. The party’s promises of reform are fake,” Huang said.
King came out of the venue to invite Huang to join the party.
“This party is not about the election. You and other local people are welcome to attend,” King said.
Ye told Huang that because he was finishing his term this year, he had expanded his annual family gathering to thank more people for their support, adding that he had covered all the expenses himself.
Although King and Ye repeated their invitation for Huang to join the party, he declined and said he would ask law enforcement officers to investigate.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
RSS