Hualien prosecutors raided People First Party (PFP) Hualien county commissioner candidate Fu Kun-chi's headquarters yesterday in connection with vote-buying allegations.
Earlier this week Hualien prosecutors applied for permission to detain three of Fu's supporters who had allegedly been vote buying, and have now taken the three into custody.
Prosecutor Lee Tzu-chun (李子春) led investigators in a raid on Fu's headquarters yesterday morning in Hualien City, seizing electoral rolls, but they didn't discover any cash.
Lee told local reporters "the evidence suggested that Fu's campaign members would probably intensify their vote-buying activities in the final hours before election day, so prosecutors were investigating the matter."
Fu yesterday denied the vote buying allegations, and said the raid would have a serious impact on his campaign.
Fu is competing with incumbent commissioner Hsieh Shen-shan (謝深山) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the Hualien commissioner's race.
Although various polls have indicated that Hsieh is leading, Fu still had a reasonable chance of winning the seat.
Meanwhile, a Nantou County Government building was raided on Thursday by prosecutors investigating alleged construction contract and vote-buying corruption involving commissioner Lin Tsung-nan (林宗男), who is standing for re-election as an independent candidate. After the raid, Lin was summoned for questioning by prosecutors.
Lin did not report to prosecutors on Thursday as scheduled, but he tearfully accused them of harassing him and colluding with his opponent, the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), in order to help Tsai win today's election.
The head of the Nantou District Prosecutor's Office Shih Liang-po (施良波) said yesterday that Lin was under suspicion of using NT$1.6 billion (US$47.7 million) in funds -- which consists of fees for infrastructure repair damaged by flooding in July and central government's compensation for quarrying sand in the county -- as contracts and kickbacks for specific local politicians and construction companies in exchange for their support in his re-election bid.
Shih added that on Wednesday prosecutors discovered an excessive amount of cash at Lin's campaign office in Puli Township (
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS