Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) yesterday filed a lawsuit to invalidate the Nov. 24 Taipei mayoral election, saying voting irregularities were discovered during a recount of the ballots.
Ting said in a statement that during the recount, which began on Monday last week and ended yesterday afternoon, he discovered “far too many” electoral oversights and vote-collecting malpractices.
“The chaos seen in the election has severely undermined Taiwan’s image as a democracy. In particular, members of the Central Election Commission [CEC] and the Taipei City Election Commission [TCEC] failed to act when they should have, seriously impairing the rights of candidates and voters,” Ting said.
He is also “carefully considering” taking legal action against the commissions to hold them accountable for the issues and have them pay for the recount and other election-related expenses in accordance with the State Compensation Act (國家賠償法) and the Civil Code, he said.
Ting paid a deposit of NT$4.28 million (US$138,136) for the recount after he was defeated by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) by a margin of 3,254 votes.
Ting cited voting irregularities when demanding a recount, saying some voters were still waiting to cast their ballots at some polling stations after vote counting had begun elsewhere, allowing the voters to view the early results before they voted.
According to Article 69 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a deposit is only returned if the recount changes the original result.
The Taipei District Court is expected to announce the recount results today.
Ting said that as the election underscored several problems — such as the age limits on voters in elections (20 years) and referendums (18 years), and the short voting hours — he hopes that lawmakers across party lines will work to prevent similar disorganization from recurring.
Ting, who has served seven terms as a legislator since 1990, had set the office of Taipei mayor as the final destination of his political career.
He had succeeded in securing the KMT’s nomination as its Taipei mayoral candidate after four failed attempts.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
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
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS