Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (
"I was very upset when I heard about his plan so I immediately asked him not to do this. It won't help the DPP's campaign at all. It will actually sink this ship," Yang said.
Yang refused to identify the vote captain.
He said that two weeks ago, while the vote captain was chatting with other vote captains for the pan-blue campaign, the DPP captain claimed the green camp would win 55 percent of the votes in the county -- a remark that irritated the blue-camp vote captains.
According to Yang, the DPP vote captain had collected NT$13 million to bet on the DPP and was trying to take advantage of this money to attract more gamblers to bet on the ticket of President Chen Shui-bian (
Yang said he had discovered the plan and put a stop to it.
"I told him that what he was trying to do wouldn't help. It would only drag us down," Yang said.
However, Yang also told reporters that he heard a rumor that blue-camp vote captains had collected NT$3 million for gambling on the presidential election.
"I just heard about it but I cannot confirm that for you," Yang said. "But at least I stopped something illegal."
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung County Police Department Commissioner Yi Yung-jen (伊永仁) said police have been investigating 59 gambling cases and that each case was related to the presidential election.
The National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it had arrested a Taoyuan gangster who had bet NT$100 million on the KMT.
According to the CIB, Ho Sheng-sung (
Ho also allegedly organized casinos in Taoyuan County and ran an underground banking business.
"Ho always used violence to force people to support the candidate for whom he was working," said Hsu Bing-wen (
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
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