Kaohsiung prosecutors' crackdown on vote-buying ahead of today's city council elections netted another seven people yesterday.
While two were detained on vote-buying charges, five were released on bail, Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chung Chung-hsiao (
The seven had been working as campaign staffers for four city council candidates from various parties, Chung said.
Voters had been paid either NT$1,000 (US$30) or NT$500, the official said.
Chung said that the Kaohsiung District Court had so far ordered the detention of 13 people for alleged involvement in vote-buying or bribery for today's elections, while 19 had been released on bail.
Prosecutors are withholding the names of candidates whose staffers have been arrested to avoid affecting the elections.
"Vote-buying and bribery have been very serious issues in Kaohsiung during this campaign" said State Public Prosecutor-General Wu Ying-chao (
Police and prosecutors are questioning voters who allegedly received gifts or cash from the suspects.
The Ministry of Justice said yesterday that prosecutors were investigating a total of 81 cases involving bribery or vote-buying in the Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral campaigns, and 509 cases related to the city councilor elections.
Six people have been indicted in three different cases so far, the ministry said, adding that prosecutors would "make every effort to crack down on vote-buying" before the elections.
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.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
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
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