Pingtung County prosecutors yesterday detained two people after questioning five earlier this week in connection with allegations of vote-buying against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Aboriginal Legislator Chien Tung-ming (簡東明).
Pingtung’s move came one day after four suspected vote-brokers allegedly working for Chien were held incommunicado following a probe by the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office.
Pingtung prosecutor Yang Wan-li (楊婉莉) said that the county district prosecutors’ office launched an investigation after receiving reports of people paying cash in exchange for votes during the campaign for Aboriginal legislative candidates in several constituencies.
Yang said the office conducted coordinated raids with representatives from Criminal Investigation Bureau units and local police stations on Friday last week, the day before the elections, searching more than a dozen places and residences in Sandimen (三地門) and Majia (瑪家) townships. Situated in the hills and mountain areas of Pingtung, the two townships are mainly inhabited by Paiwan Aborgines.
Armed with warrants, officials detained 30 people for questioning in the operation last Friday. Five more people were summoned for questioning on Wednesday.
Two of the suspects, surnamed Wang (王) and Ma (馬), were held incommunicado yesterday morning, after investigators found cash and lists of eligible voters in their possession, Yang said.
Several residents have reportedly admitted accepting cash in exchange for votes, with Wang and Ma allegedly acting as vote-brokers for Chien, prosecutors said.
Chien, also known as Uliw Qaljupayare, is from Pingtung’s Paiwan Community, and had served as Shihzih Township (獅子) head.
He first won an Aboriginal legislative seat for the KMT in 2008, but was embroiled in litigation on vote-buying charges.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
RSS