The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday paid a NT$100,000 (US$2,815) reward to a Chiayi county resident who tipped off the party on vote-buying in the county and provided evidence against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and New Party candidate Pan Huai-tsung (潘懷宗) of vote-buying.
“The first cash reward is given to a Chiayi resident who called the DPP central anti-vote-buying hotline to tip off the party about suspected vote-buying activities. We then forwarded the case to the [Chiayi] prosecutors’ office, as well as the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, and the [Chiayi District] court ruled to detain those involved after a review of the cases,” DPP campaign chief executive Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) told a news conference at the party headquarters yesterday morning. “It is regrettable that political parties are still taking the risk of buying votes.”
“It should also give the judicial agencies a chance to think about why people would trust the DPP and tip us off, instead of trusting the judiciary,” Su said.
In the past few days, several elected officials, their friends and families in Chiayi County — including the KMT Shueishang Township (水上) Council speaker Wu Pei-yu (吳培裕), KMT former Shueishang Township mayor Cheng Lai-chu (鄭來居) and a borough chief surnamed Kuo (郭) in Taibao City (太保) — were detained for alleged vote-buying.
To keep the whistleblower’s identity confidential, the DPP declined to reveal whether the person tipped the DPP off on the Shueishang or the Taibao cases.
The DPP also showed video footage of Chiang giving out a bicycle costing more than NT$2,000 and a fan worth more than NT$1,000 as presents at an event in his constituency, as well as Pan distributing 0.5 liter bottles of laundry detergent at a campaign event concert.
“The Ministry of Justice has clearly and repeatedly stated that candidates may not give out presents valued at more than NT$30 each to voters,” DPP anti-vote-buying task force executive director Lien Li-jen (連立堅) said.
DPP spokesperson Yang Chia-liang (楊家俍) said that in the 2012 elections, the KMT was fined more than NT$45 million for campaign irregularities, and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that it was a “shameful mark on the KMT.”
“If [KMT chairman] Eric Chu (朱立倫) will not solve the vote-buying issue in the party, the ‘shameful mark’ will remain on the KMT forever,” Yang said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
RSS