The National Police Agency and judicial investigators yesterday presented reports on efforts across the nation to prevent “black money” from influencing today’s presidential and legislative elections.
There have been 15 cases of legislative candidates allegedly buying votes or participating in other forms of voter bribery, with 123 people questioned, two indictments handed down and four people detained, an agency report said.
A nationwide sweep uncovered 199 cases of alleged illegal gambling, resulting so far in the indictment of four proprietors in central Taiwan, it said, adding that more indictments would be handed down in the coming weeks, with suspected proprietors of gambling operations facing illegal gambling charges under the Criminal Code and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), and suspected gamblers facing charges under the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法).
Photo courtesy of Jincheng Police Precinct
Operators of a major illegal gambling ring in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) have been arrested, the city’s police reported on Thursday.
The raids arrested 18 suspects connected with illegal betting on the elections and seized NT$205 million (US$6.83 million) in illegal bets, police said, adding that proprietors provided the odds, communication links, devices and programs for people to place wagers.
A man surnamed Wu (吳) headed what is considered to be the largest illegal gambling ring uncovered in northern Taiwan, they said.
People betting on the results of the presidential election used the code word “fish” (魚) for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, and “green vegetable” (青菜) for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is seeking re-election, they added.
Wu was among the people detained for questioning, while an unspecified amount of cash, mobile phones, fax machines and account books were seized, police said.
Police in Kinmen County said they are questioning a suspect surnamed Lee (李) regarding an alleged illegal gambling operation running election bets, adding that raids on Thursday led to the seizure of NT$270,000 in cash, notebook computers, mobile phones, account books and 36 wager receipts.
Judicial officials are also investigating sources of the money wagered in the illegal operations, as pundits and some candidates have said that most of the money was coming from China through underground banks and remittance services.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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