The Central Election Commission (CEC) has warned voters against wearing masks bearing campaign messages while heading to the polls in Saturday’s local elections, saying that those who do so could be fined at least NT$500,000 (US$16,041).
Wearing such masks would be considered a contravention of the rules banning all kinds of campaign activities and electioneering on election day, commission Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said in response to media queries last week.
A commission official later said that any suspected contravention of the rules would be referred to the CEC for investigation and those found guilty could face a fine of NT$500,000 to NT$5 million.
Photo: CNA
Voters are to choose 11,000 local officials and councilors at all levels of local government, and cast their ballots for a referendum on lowering the legal voting age and the minimum age of candidacy to 18.
In related news, the commission on Friday said that a legislative by-election would be held on Jan. 8 next year to fill the seat left vacant by Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), who resigned as legislator on Nov. 10 to focus on his Taipei mayoral election campaign.
The registration period for the by-election is to run from Monday next week to Dec. 2, the commission said.
Photo: CNA
Chiang of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) formerly represented the Zhongshan (中山)-Northern Songshan (北松山) electoral district in Taipei and is the KMT’s candidate for Taipei mayor.
According to Article 73-1 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a legislative by-election must be held within three months of a legislator’s resignation unless there is less than a year remaining in their legislative term.
Chiang’s legislative term is to end on Jan. 31, 2024.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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