The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it would not press charges against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) after wrapping up its investigation into vote-buying allegations.
Independent candidate Billy Pan (潘建志), a psychiatrist and political commentator, who lost the Jan. 16 legislative election to Chiang in Taipei’s Songshan (松山) and Zhongzheng (中山) districts, had accused Chiang of offering prizes at public events to solicit votes.
The office said there was insufficient evidence that Chiang engaged in vote-buying.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
However, Chiang is not yet cleared from election-related litigation, since Pan had also filed a civil suit to nullify the election result, with the Taipei District Court scheduled to start its hearing next month.
Chiang Wan-an is the son of former KMT vice chairman John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) and grandson of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
Pan accused Chiang Wan-an of providing prizes for raffles, including bicycles and electric fans, at three traditional holiday events in September and November last year, as the campaign for the legislative elections began to heat up.
Armed with photographs, video recordings and other materials provided by the public, Pan went to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Nov. 28 last year and asked prosecutors to investigate alleged “vote-buying activities” by Chiang Wan-an.
The videos and photographs showed Chiang Wan-an giving away prizes, which had labels bearing his name, during the three public events. He also addressed the crowd and called for support in January’s elections.
Pan said the events were organized by local boroughs in the legislative election district that the two were contesting, and only local borough residents were eligible for the raffle prize draw.
It therefore constituted “bribery” of eligible voters with gifts in exchange for their votes, Pan said.
In the video recording, Chiang Wan-an’s campaign office manager, Chuko Fen (諸葛芬), was shown handing out prizes to raffle draw winners and calling on residents to cast their votes for Chiang.
Chiang Wan-an, a lawyer, said he did participate at the three events and provided prizes for the raffle draws.
However, providing gifts “proportional to social etiquette” during traditional holiday celebrations does not constitute bribery under election regulations, he said, adding that he was only a “passive” participant at the time, having been invited by local borough wardens who organized the events.
Chiang also said Pan’s allegations of vote-buying were “insulting to voters’ intelligence,” and decried such “negative campaign tactics.”
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by