The Alliance Against the Legalization of Gambling yesterday protested in front of the Agency Against Corruption following the results of a referendum last weekend which favored the construction of a casino resort on Matsu and said the agency must investigate the possibility of vote-buying during the referendum campaign.
The alliance’s executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳), accused Weidner Resorts Taiwan — the developer behind a planned casino resort on the island — and Lienchiang County Government of deceiving residents by making unrealistic promises, such as promising monthly subsidies of NT$80,000 for Matsu residents, saying the promises were tantamount to vote-buying.
Ho said Lienchiang County Commissioner Yang Sui-sheng (楊綏生) published several articles in local newspapers to promote the casino proposal before the referendum took place and he even used public funds to buy ad space in newspapers which were designed to promote the proposal, which Ho said violated the administrative neutrality principle.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
Ho also said Yang used the Matsu Daily, a mouthpiece of the county government, to promote the alleged advantages of the establishment of casino resorts and to influence the residents’ decision.
Ho described the popular poll as a “cheating referendum.” The alliance delivered a letter of complaint to the agency, urging it to launch an investigation.
Ho added the alliance would also file a suit with the Central Election Committee requesting that the referendum be nullified
Residents of Matsu on Saturday voted in favor of the construction of casino resorts on the outlying islands. Fifty-six percent voted in favor of the initiative, while 42 percent opposed it.
The groups said they planned to launch another referendum in three years to keep the gambling industry out of Matsu.
“In fact, the result of the referendum was not surprising,” said Buddhist Master Shih Chao-hui (釋昭慧), convener of the Alliance Against the Legalization of Gambling.
“If not for the effort of the alliance to raise anti-gambling awareness on the islands, the opposition would have secured less than 20 percent of the total votes,” she said.
The referendum and the project are not only meaningful to the residents of Matsu, but also to people in other parts of Taiwan, the master added.
If a casino resort is allowed to be established in Matsu, more casinos would be built in other regions in the country in the future, she said, adding that is why the alliance is planning to stage an anti-gambling referendum in three years.
The Referendum Act (公民投票法) stipulates that, whether a referendum proposal is adopted or vetoed, no more proposals may be raised on the same matter within three years.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS