Lin Hsing-er (林杏兒) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might be denied her post as a Taipei city councilor after the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday filed a civil case regarding the Nov. 26 election in Taipei’s first electoral district.
Prosecutors also issued an arrest warrant for KMT Central Standing Committee member Hsiao Ching-tien (蕭景田), a former legislator, after he failed to respond to a summons regarding alleged vote-buying.
Prosecutors in the past few days have questioned Lin and other KMT members about the alleged cash-for-votes scheme leading up to last month’s election, which decided posts in the city’s Shilin (士林) and Beitou (北投) districts.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
The prosecutors’ office is seeking to invalidate the votes for Lin.
Hsiao was the main financial backer of Lin’s campaign. He has been accused of leading a cash-for-votes scheme.
Prosecutors questioned more than 20 borough wardens and Tseng Fan-chuan (曾繁川), head of the electoral district’s KMT chapter.
Prosecutors said that they have sufficient evidence to press charges, including witness testimony, recordings of telephone calls in which Tseng allegedly instructed borough wardens to distribute money and ask people to vote for Lin.
Evidence shows that some wardens received NT$10,000 (US$325.65), prosecutors said.
Lin is the KMT’s deputy spokeswoman. She was previously a member of the party’s Central Standing Committee.
Hsiao owns hotels and has other business interests in Shilin and Beitou, including the Grand View Resort Beitou Hotel. He also owns the Grand View Hotel in Changhua County’s Yuanlin City (員林市).
Hsiao has been accused of having ties to criminal gangs in Changhua County. He was elected as a legislator for one term from 2008 to 2012, despite a conviction for transporting a body in a case in which a police officer was killed.
He disclosed stocks and bank account deposits totaling NT$1.874 billion and more than 70 properties in 2011.
He is head of the KMT’s Changhua County Chapter and an executive member of the Taiwan Tourist Hotel Association.
Hsiao reportedly left Taiwan on a flight on Wednesday.
KMT officials said that he was on holiday and would respond to his summons on his return.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the KMT was negligent to “permit such a notorious figure to be involved in politics.”
DPP lawmakers on Dec. 5 proposed legislation to bar convicted criminals and gangsters from seeking public office, with Hsiao presented as an example of who should not be allowed to run.
“The KMT must end its double standard,” Su said. “It castigates other parties, saying they are tainted by ties to gangsters, even voicing support for the DPP’s proposal, but it continues to nominate convicted criminals and alleged gangsters for county speaker and deputy speaker offices.”
“Now the KMT has a Central Standing Committee member who is a wanted criminal embroiled in a vote-buying case,” he said. “I believe the public would not tolerate such a situation.”
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS