The Presidential Office and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) maintained a low profile yesterday following the resignation of former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) amid his alleged involvement in a bribery scandal, seeking to minimize the damage by describing the incident as a judicial case.
Presidential Office deputy spokesperson Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏) said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has stated clearly that he respected Lin’s decision to resign from the post while under investigation.
The KMT also tried to distance itself from Lin. Director of the KMT’s Culture and Communication Committee, Chuang Po-chun (莊伯仲), said the party would not comment on any judicial case and Lin should make clarifications or explanations on his own.
However, the bribery allegations against Lin have affected the KMT’s reputation amid Ma’s efforts to improve its image of being old and corrupt.
As one of Ma’s preferred officials, Lin, 44, was also a promising politician in the KMT who had enjoyed a solid support base in Greater Kaohsiung. His alleged involvement in the bribery case could make it more difficult for the KMT to expand its support base in the south of the nation and win future local elections there.
KMT Secretary-General Lin Join-Sane (林中森) said the KMT is dedicated to cultivating more young talent and will finalize its selection of candidates for the June 2014 local elections within the next three months to plan for the campaigns, dismissing concerns about the party’s problematic support base in southern Taiwan.
Meanwhile, despite Ma’s trademark emphasis on “clean politics,” government statistics showed that among the 31 cases since November 2007 in which political parties were penalized because their nominees were engaged in vote-buying, the KMT was involved in 26 cases, while the Democratic Progressive Party had three and the People First Party and the Dadao Compassion Jishih Party each had one.
The Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公職人員選舉罷免法) was amended in November 2007 to hold political parties responsible if candidates endorsed by them are found to be engaged in campaign irregularities.
The KMT has been fined NT$16 million (US$535,000) for the 26 campaign irregularities.
Most of the vote-buying incidents involving KMT candidates — with a few exceptions such as the case involving former KMT legislator Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) in December 2007 — have occurred after Ma was sworn in as the party chairman in October 2008.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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