Law enforcement officers yesterday questioned 25 people in Tainan about a candidate who is suspected of buying votes, amid nationwide reports of illegal campaign activities.
The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office coordinated with local police and judicial investigation units to deliver summons to witnesses and persons of interest.
The investigation is focused on a Liouying District (柳營) borough warden candidate, whose bail was set at NT$150,000, Tainan deputy chief prosecutor Ko Yi-ling (柯怡伶) said.
Prosecutors planned to charge the candidate with contravening the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Ko said, adding that the other 24 people detained as witnesses and persons of interest were released without bail.
“The candidate handed out red envelopes with his name that contained NT$1,000,” Ko said. “He said it was just a gift to local residents in celebration of a recent national holiday.”
However, witnesses said that he was buying votes for the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections, Ko said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors last week questioned four men suspected of working as vote brokers for a candidate running for a Chiayi County councilor seat.
They were allegedly giving eligible voters NT$1,000 each.
Investigators found that NT$200,000 had been used to buy votes, Chiayi head prosecutor Tsai Ying-chun (蔡英俊) said.
Two of the four men, who did not cooperate with investigators, were on Saturday detained after questioning, while the other two were released after posting NT$20,000 bail, Tsai said.
In Changhua County’s Beidou Township (北斗), investigators said that 20 residents had admitted receiving NT$500 each after promising to vote for a town councilor candidate surnamed Cheng (鄭).
Three suspects were questioned, but they gave conflicting accounts, so they were detained on Thursday last week, Changhua head prosecutor Yeh Chien-cheng (葉建成) said.
One of the suspects was Cheng’s father and the other two were neighborhood wardens.
To date, more than a dozen candidates from the county have been investigated for handing out gifts in return for votes in the run-up to the elections, Yeh said, adding that Cheng’s case was the first to have involved money.
In other developments, Hualien County prosecutors last week said that they plan to charge two Wanrong Township (萬榮) village warden candidates, surnamed Lin (林) and Huang (黃), who are alleged to have paid village residents up to NT$2,000 for their votes.
Hualien prosecutors told reporters that they are investigating more than 100 cases of alleged vote buying, while local police are increasing their efforts to monitor election violations by candidates.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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