The ruling DPP yesterday found a committee member in the party's Taichung County Chapter, Wang Hsien-tang (
"Wang has violated the party's anti-vote-buying principles. The DPP Central Standing Committee (CSC) has therefore decided to take disciplinary action against him. We've proposed that the party's Central Review Committee revoke his party membership next week," DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday.
Hsieh added that the party's investigation team had found evidence over the past two weeks that proved Wang had claimed to control the votes of 1,600 party members. Wang had also tried to sell those votes at a price of NT$1,000 to NT$5,000 per vote, according to DPP Taichung County Councilor Liu Kun-li (劉坤鱧), who reported the incidents to the party two weeks ago.
Hsieh yesterday further validated Liu's allegations and asked former DPP chairman Chang Chun-hung (
"It takes more courage to make an allegation than to testify as a witness. I'd like to support Liu's accusation about Wang's misconduct here because I, together with another DPP legislator, Chen Zau-nan (陳昭南), were there with him that day, witnessing everything that happened," Chang said, adding that the party had demonstrated its determination to wipe out vote-buying and corruption in elections.
Chang said he had found vote-buying in the DPP legislative primary this year to have been particularly serious, even though it had been rampant for years.
Hsieh said that there was an additional case currently under investigation.
The party yesterday also published the outcome of telephone polls involving six primary candidates in Taichung County. Last week the six candidates, worried about vote-buying, signed an agreement to cancel a vote by party members. A vote by party members is usually the second stage of party primaries and had been scheduled for April 1. In accordance with the agreement, four of the six will instead be chosen as the party's legislative candidates in Taichung County on the basis of the results of the telephone polls alone.
The agreement also involved a promise that no candidate would dispute the outcome of the election even if their poll figures were within the standard margin of error of 3 percent.
The poll results revealed the four successful candidates to be incumbent legislators Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜) and Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), former director of the DPP's department of organizational development Kuo Chun-min (郭俊銘), and a Taichung official, Chien Chao-dong (簡肇棟). The two unsuccessful candidates were Taichung County councilors Liu Kun-li and Liu Chien-ho (劉錦和).
Chiu, Kuo and Chien are all members of the party's New Tide faction (
The party will confirm the nomination of the four candidates and that of a fifth -- a female candidate -- at the party's Central Executive Committee on April 3. It is the party's policy to nominate at least one female candidate among the five candidates for each constituency.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
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