The Central Election Commission’s (CEC) Taichung branch yesterday held a draw to determine the number each candidate would be assigned on the ballot in the legislative by-election for city’s second electoral district on Jan. 9.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominee Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) drew No. 4, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) nominee Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恆) drew No. 5.
Taiwan Stock Investors’ Party candidate Chang Chiung-chun (張 ?春) drew No. 1, while two independent candidates, Lin Chin-lien (林金連) and Lee Sheng-han (李昇翰) drew No. 2 and No. 3 respectively.
Photo: CNA
The winner of the by-election would fill the seat left vacant after former Taiwan Statebuilding Party legislator Chen Po-wei (陳柏惟) was ousted in a recall vote on Oct. 23.
Taichung’s second electoral district encompasses Dadu (大肚), Shalu (沙鹿), Longjing (龍井), Wufong (霧峰) and Wurih (烏日) districts.
Yen was accompanied to the election commission branch by his supporters, including his sister Yen Li-min (顏莉敏), who is deputy council speaker of the Taichung City Council, and other city councilors from the pan-blue camp.
Supporters were also there to cheer for Lin, including Chen Po-wei, former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and DPP city councilors.
Speaking to reporters, Lin Chia-lung urged officials to crack down on alleged vote-buying, and stop illegal betting by underground gambling pools, which have been known to affect the outcome of local elections.
“We call on local residents to look out for these contraventions of election regulations, and to report any illegal activity to the authorities,” he said.
“If we can put a stop to the buying of votes — to money distributed at the neighborhood level — then we are confident that Lin Ching-yi can win this election,” he said.
Yen has fought back against allegations that his campaign provided buffet-style meals at events to “buy votes.”
City councilors had accused him of providing meals that exceeded the free gift limit for campaigns.
Yen told reporters that his DPP opponent participated in a religious celebration in Taichung over the weekend, at which a crowd of more than 1,000 people, including Vice President William Lai (賴清德), allegedly had banquet-style meals.
However, Lin Ching-yi replied that Yen had been mistaken, and that she did not attend the event.
“We hope Yen can get his facts straight. I was not even there,” she added.
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
RSS