Controversy swirled at campaign events in Taichung on Friday as mayoral candidates traded accusations about the use of drones and whether people were being forced to attend.
Police officials said that they had received reports of “interference” by four drones flying above the crowd at the “Taichung Coastal Region Joint Rally” at a stadium in Shalu District (沙鹿), an event organized by the re-election campaign team of Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Yen Wen-cheng (顏文正), director of Lu’s campaign headquarters, said that the drones were being operated at an altitude that posed a danger to flights at Taichung International Airport, which is just to the north of the stadium, and affected KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) scheduled appearance at the rally.
Photo: CNA
Chu made an afternoon campaign visit to Kinmen County and his evening flight to Taichung could not land for some time due to the drones, Yen said.
The flight had to circle for more than an hour before it was cleared to land, “but by then it was too late and Chu’s speech at the event had to be canceled,” he said.
Police disabled three of the drones, bringing them down with signal-jamming equipment, but could not disable the fourth drone, as it was too high, Yen said.
Yen and other campaign staff yesterday filed a judicial complaint at the Taichung Cingshuei Police Precinct, demanding that police and prosecutors investigate the matter.
Yen blamed the incident on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) camp.
“It used illegal action to interfere in our campaign event,” he said. “The drones were to take photographs, which the DPP would doctor and circulate on social media to mislead people about the size of the crowd.”
However, workers for the campaign of Legislative Yuan Vice President Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), the DPP’s candidate for Taichung mayor, said that Lu’s camp was deceiving itself.
Lu’s own Facebook page has photographs of the crowd at the stadium taken from above, they said.
DPP officials in Taichung said that the drones were operated by Lu’s staff, adding in jest that the real purpose of the devices was for Lu’s KMT faction to impede Chu from taking the stage as part of an internal power struggle.
Yen later yesterday said that office staff had hired a truck-mounted crane to get the aerial shots seen on Facebook.
Separately, a worker at a credit union said that he and others had been forced to attend the event.
Supervisors at a Taichung area credit union that is affiliated with a farmers’ association said that its workers had to attend Lu’s rally and each take four people with them, he wrote.
“Are we still living in the past? Why are credit union executives so fervent about politics?” he wrote. “They ordered every employee to attend and to mobilize four people each to attend Lu’s rally on Friday.”
“If we did not provide a list of four people, we would face scrutiny and possible disciplinary measures at an office meeting,” he wrote. “Why are they forcing us to do this?”
“We are low-level employees in the banking sector. The workplace should be neutral regarding elections to uphold professionalism,” the man wrote.
“Employees should not be forced to link up with local political factions and their powerful interests and must not be forced to support particular candidates,” he wrote.
Asked about the accusations, Tsai said that the Taichung City Government and Lu should stop such practices.
“This is the traditional way that the KMT mobilizes government and public-sector employees at election time,” Tsai said. “Many people attend KMT rallies, but halfway through, the place is empty because people are eager to leave immediately after they have signed in.”
“This is a typical KMT method to pack a venue, but they are not real supporters,” he said.
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