Two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians lost their seats yesterday after losing their final appeals on vote-buying convictions in the High Court.
The court found KMT Taoyuan City Councilor Liu Mao-chun (劉茂群) guilty, upholding a ruling by the Taoyuan District Court that her giving out fruit gift packs valued at NT$738 to 38 members of a community management committee during her 2018 campaign breached the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
The act prohibits the presentation of gifts worth more than NT$30 at campaign activities.
The High Court ruling, which is final, annuls the result of her election.
It was a bitter ending for the seven-term KMT Taoyuan councilor, who has served for more than 20 years, winning elections in the city’s Bade District (八德).
“I have to face this adversity with calm and patience. Here I offer my apology to my constituents that I cannot fulfill my campaign promises,” Liu wrote on Facebook after the verdict was delivered.
The High Court’s Taichung Branch handed down the second ruling in a vote-buying case involving Miaoli County Toufen Township (頭份) Councilor Liu Wen-chao (劉文照) over the distribution of cash to eligible voters during the 2018 campaign. The cases against them were launched by rivals who lost the elections.
Prosecutors investigated the allegations that Miaoli County Councilor Cheng Chu-jan (鄭聚然) and Liu Wen-chao had teamed up to hand out cash to neighborhood leaders and vote-brokers.
In two cited incidents, a campaign staff member working for Cheng passed on NT$28,000 cash to a woman surnamed Lin (林) in September 2018, and presented NT$20,000 to a man surnamed Chung (鍾) the following month, as both said to have agreed to hand out NT$500 per voter in exchange for promise to vote for the two candidates.
One person testified that Chung had brought along Liu Wen-chao on door-to-door visits in Toufen neighborhoods, during which they would ask how many eligible voters were registered at the address, and then Liu Wen-chao told Chung to hand out NT$500 per voter.
In the earlier ruling, the Miaoli District Court found there was no firm evidence to support Cheng was the source of the money or knew about the vote-buying activities, and it dismissed the case against him, while it found Liu Wen-chao guilty.
In yesterday’s ruling, the High Court upheld Liu Wen-chao’s conviction, concurring with prosecutors’ case on the vote-buying charges and rescinding the election result for him.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
RSS