With only three weeks to go before the voters head to the polls, the war of words between the two major contenders in Taipei has become firmly fixed on allegations of telephone tapping at an office of independent candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
After a campaign rally yesterday, Ko called for an end to speculation over who was responsible for the cables supposedly used for to tap some of his campaign office phone lines that were discovered late on Tuesday.
The dust-up between Ko’s camp and that of Chinese Nationalist Party (KTM) rival Sean Lien (連勝文), began after Lien’s campaign office director released what he said was Ko’s plans for a city hall management team on Tuesday.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Ko says the matter should be left to the police, who are investigating the allegations of phone-tapping.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said that staff member have turned over “evidence” to police and he is confident they will get to the bottom of who was behind the alleged devices.
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元), Lien’s executive campaign director has blamed the Ko camp for executing what he called a “standard framing incident,” but doing it clumsily. The office originally said there were recording devices, but later said there were only “suspicious” phone cables after police arrived, Tsai said.
A private telecommunications operator had checked the switchboard on Tuesday, but did not find any such cables, Tsai said.
There were three “suspects” in Ko’s camp who might have been behind the placement to spur sympathy for Ko, he said.
Ko’s campaign staff said they had no reason to try a sympathy ploy because their candidate has been leading in opinion polls.
Police said they are continuing their investigation. However, so far they have found that some of the cables seized from the office were not used for wiretapping.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS