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.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS