Staff reporter
The Ministry of Justice said yesterday it was considering whether or not a county commissioner's decision to reward villages that have a high turnout in the March 22 presidential election constitutes vote-buying.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) recently said that any village that has more than a 75 percent turnout for the presidential vote would be rewarded with a NT$1 million (US$32,600) construction fund.
The KMT has traditionally enjoyed good support in the county.
"Isn't this a form of vote buying?" Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) asked ministry officials during a meeting of the Judiciary Committee at the legislature yesterday.
Wong said Liu may have violated the law or government regulations because he made the offer while also serving as a chief campaigner for KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Deputy Justice Minister Kuo Lin-yung (郭林勇) said that it was legal for a local official to encourage residents to turn out and vote, but if Liu suggested voting for a certain candidate he would have violated the law.
Kuo said the ministry would investigate Liu's policy and his remarks before deciding whether or not it was legal.
He said a conclusion would be reached within three days.
KMT Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said the ministry should clear the matter up as soon as possible because Taipei County and Taichung County were considering following Miaoli County's lead.
Hsieh said that if Liu were found to have violated the law or election regulations, then Premier Chang Chun-hsiung's (張俊雄) decision that toll stations on freeways should not collect fees on election day should also be investigated.
Chang said that providing toll-free services on freeways on election day would persuade more people to travel home to cast their ballot.
Kuo said Chang's policy was legal because it does not favor either candidate.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
GROUNDED: A KMT lawmaker proposed eliminating drone development programs and freezing funding for counterdrone systems, despite China’s adoption of the technology China has deployed attack drones at air bases near the Taiwan Strait in a strategy aimed at overwhelming Taiwan’s air defense systems through saturation attacks, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. The council’s latest quarterly report on China said that satellite imagery and open-source intelligence indicate that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had converted retired J-6 fighter jets into J-6W drones, which the PLA has stationed at six air bases near Taiwan, five in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province. The report cited J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the US-based Mitchell Institute, as saying that China has
RSS