The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) yesterday said it had launched 984 investigations involving 1,447 individuals in relation to the special municipality elections to be held next month.
Unveiling the statistics, the ministry said prosecutors had probed 46 cases related to the five municipal mayoral races, 419 related to the municipal councilor polls and 519 cases related to borough elections.
Of the 984 cases, 900 concerned vote buying, involving 1,321 individuals. Thirty cases, involving 51 individuals, concerned election-related violence, and 54 cases, with 75 people involved, were related to slander suits over the elections.
So far, prosecutors have indicted two individuals on suspicion of vote buying, the ministry said.
The Democratic Progressive Party, which has called on the ministry to combat vote buying, said it feared Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates could again engage in the practice.
Several KMT candidates were indicted or found guilty of vote buying during last year’s three-in-one elections and in the most recent legislative election.
Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) yesterday encouraged the public to refer any vote buying activity to prosecutors, adding that such behavior would not be tolerated.
The special municipality elections will be held on Nov. 27 for Taipei City, Sinbei City (the soon-to-be-upgraded Taipei County), Greater Taichung (a merger of Taichung city and county), Greater Tainan (a merger of Tainan city and county) and Greater Kao-hsiung (a merger of Kaohsiung city and county).
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS