The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday began its primary election for Chiayi County commissioner, as local prosecutors arrested four suspects over alleged involvement in bribery or election betting.
A telephone opinion poll was conducted last night to decide whether the party should nominate Chiayi County Council Speaker Chang Ming-ta (張明達) or former Council of Agriculture deputy minister Weng Chang-liang (翁章梁). The results are to be announced today.
The race was expected to be a close one, with an opinion poll released in January showing Weng leading Chang by only 5.1 percentage points.
The results of the opinion poll would be sealed and sent to DPP headquarters, which is to make an official announcement. However, if the polling agency failed to collect enough valid votes by 10:30pm yesterday, a second round of opinion polls is to be conducted today, the DPP said.
The showdown between the two is widely viewed as a proxy war between Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) and DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), a former county commissioner.
Helen Chang has endorsed Chang Ming-ta’s bid and actively campaigned for him, while Weng has the support of Chen and DPP Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘), who have considerable local influence.
The DPP plans to hold primaries for Chiayi County, Kaohsiung and Tainan from yesterday to tomorrow. It decided by drawing lots yesterday to start with Chiayi County. It is to decide today when the other two would be held.
Meanwhile, Chiayi County prosecutors detained four people over alleged involvement in election betting or bribery.
The Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office had no comment as of press time last night.
Tsai, in a Facebook post, accused Chang Ming-ta’s campaign team of being involved in the bribery scheme.
“You [Chang Ming-ta] never impose any restrictions on your team. Your relationship building has become a ruleless [leadership]. You allowed those people to squander your money, which is the biggest contributing factor to Chiayi County’s growing instability,” Tsai wrote.
Chang Ming-ta’s campaign team denied any association with the suspects and accused Tsai of making groundless accusations to manipulate the election.
DPP spokesman Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) said the party was paying close attention to the investigation and that it would take disciplinary action if it discovered any election violations.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS