Any party receiving funding from an external force in an attempt to influence elections should be “ruthlessly beat down,” Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday, after prosecutors seized NT$618 million (US$20.3 million) in underground cash transfers.
The purpose of elections is to elect capable people, so government agencies must enforce the law and prevent vote-buying or other type of election rigging, Su told a weekly Cabinet meeting.
In two operations from July to September and last month to this month, 10 district prosecutors’ offices nationwide uncovered 66 cases of underground money transfers from Shanghai, Dongguan and Zhuhai in China, as well as Hong Kong, Indonesia and Vietnam, Ministry of Justice statistics showed.
A total of 279 people have been implicated in the covert transfers of NT$101.2 billion into the nation, the data showed.
Prosecutors have seized NT$618 million and six properties valued at about NT$20 million, the ministry said.
The seized cash was in currencies including the US dollar, the Hong Kong dollar, the Singaporean dollar and the Burmese kyat, it said.
The ministry said that it was still verifying whether any of the illicit funds went to candidates in the presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 11.
As of Monday, prosecutors had uncovered 219 cases of vote-buying implicating 395 people, the ministry said.
As of Monday last week, police had handled 78 cases involving the spread of disinformation concerning the elections, it said.
As of yesterday, the Investigation Bureau had received information about 16 attempts to influence the elections through misinformation and had launched probes into five, it added.
The chaos seen in the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24 last year must not be repeated next month, especially not the blunder of beginning to count votes while people were still waiting to cast their ballots, which is “absolutely unacceptable,” Su said.
The Central Election Commission told a news conference at the Executive Yuan that its three biggest mistakes in last year’s elections were causing long lines at polling stations, prolonging the voting process and counting votes while people were still voting.
To ensure a smooth voting process in next month’s elections and alleviate crowding at polling stations, the commission said that it would add 1,340 polling stations, increasing the total to 17,226.
That would reduce the number of potential voters at each polling station from 1,500 to 1,200 in the six special municipalities and from 1,300 to 1,200 in counties, it said.
Next month’s legislative elections are to see the greatest number of candidates, including 412 regional candidates, 11 Aboriginal candidates from mountainous areas and 10 Pingpu Aboriginal candidates, commission Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.
In addition, 19 political parties have a combined 279 legislative-at-large nominees, he said.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the