About 1.02 million first-time voters are eligible to cast their ballots for president today, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said yesterday as it issued a reminder on election-day rules.
A total of 19,548,531 people would be eligible to cast their ballots for president, with an additional 17,476 eligible to do so for legislators-at-large, due to a two-month difference in the residency requirements for the elections, the CEC said.
Campaigning of any kind was prohibited from midnight, including sharing content on messaging apps such as Line and social media such as Facebook in support of a candidate or party, CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.
Photo: AP
Offenders would face a fine of NT$100,000 to NT$1 million (US$3,212 to US$32,124), while political parties, candidates or their agents who contravene the regulation would face a fine of NT$200,000 to NT$2 million, Lee said.
On election day today, people should bring their national ID card, name stamp and election notice to the polling station listed on the notice, he said.
They should be quiet at the polling site and not engage in activities that might influence or prevent voting within 30m of the site, he said.
People who are noisy or engage in other activities that might influence voting behavior would face a penalty of up to one year in prison commutable to a NT$15,000 fine if they refuse to comply with orders from security at the polling site, Lee said.
People should use the markers provided at the voting site to indicate their preferred candidates on the ballot and should not use a stamp, which would invalidate the ballot paper, he said.
Recording devices are not allowed in polling booths, except for communications devices that have been switched off, he said, adding that breaching the regulation is punishable by a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000.
Destruction of a ballot is punishable by a NT$5,000 to NT$50,000 fine, he said.
Taking a ballot offsite is punishable by a one-year prison sentence, commutable to a fine of up to NT$15,000, Lee said.
The CEC has arranged 240,000 election workers at 17,795 polling stations, he said.
The tallying process is transparent and governed by strict rules to ensure fairness, he said, adding that monitors were selected by the parties with presidential candidates.
Election workers must strictly follow the procedures for counting votes, he added.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS