There are forces at work trying to block efforts by People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to collect enough signatures on a petition to take part in the presidential election, Soong said recently.
PFP personnel said Soong’s campaign efforts are being blocked by government officials, while military and educational personnel, as well civil servants, were being encouraged not to help with petition collection work.
Even veterans are being closely watched by local Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chapters, a PFP source said, citing the example of unknown persons taking away petition letters in a veterans’ village in the Banciao District (板橋) of New Taipei City (新北市).
Photo: CNA
Investigations into the incident turned up nothing, PFP spokesman Wu Kun-yu (吳崑玉) said on Saturday, adding that they would improve security to prevent anything similar happening again.
Wu said that a slanderous letter titled “A public message to Mr James Soong” had been mailed to homes in Taoyuan County on Sept. 27, with similar missive also appearing in Nantou County, New Taipei City and Hsinchu City.
As Soong is still collecting signatures for his presidential bid and has yet to officially enter the race, the PFP is unable to take legal action against those they allege are attempting to undermine a candidate’s chances in an election, Wu said.
A lawyer has been consulted to determine whether the party had grounds to sue for actions designed to force a potential candidates to withdraw from the presidential election, Wu added, but the lawyer said there was no such crime.
As for claims that government officials were impeding petition collection, Wu said he had heard that Miaoli County government ordered all civil servants not to help with the petition effort, adding that it was a verbal order rather than a written directive.
Other PFP sources said that a certain township representative had informed them township chiefs had been told not to help Soong if they valued their government subsidies. As a result only more high profile officials such as Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), former Miaoli County commissioner Fu Hsueh-peng (傅學鵬), retired county commissioners, provincial councilors and corporations were willing to help with collect signatures for Soong, Wu said.
An 80 year-old retired major who helped the PFP in Taoyuan County’s Bade township (八德) was visited six times by KMT personnel, ranging from a section chief to the county party headquarters’ deputy chairman, a PFP source said.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
RSS