The Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday said it would turn over to prosecutors 5,271 allegedly forged signatures that were submitted by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) to qualify as an independent candidate for next year’s presidential election.
CEC Chairman Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) told the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee that more than 130,000 signatures submitted by Gou and running mate Tammy Lai (賴佩霞) were invalid, including the ones believed to have been forged.
On Tuesday, the CEC certified 902,389 of the 1.03 million signatures submitted by Gou and Lai’s campaign, confirming their eligibility to run in the presidential election on Jan. 13 next year.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
They needed at least 289,667 signatures, or 1.5 percent of eligible voters in the previous presidential election, to get on the ballot.
Gou and Lai can register as presidential and vice presidential candidates between Monday and Friday next week.
Lee said the commission had reviewed each signature, and the results were comprehensive.
In other election news, the Ministry of the Interior reported that from July 1 to Monday, the police had investigated 52 incidents of alleged bribery, 90 reports of suspected election-related gambling and nine cases of spreading false information about the election.
The police have forwarded 10 incidents of bribery involving signature drives to district prosecutors’ offices, National Police Agency Director-General Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭) said, adding that there were still “a few” that the agency was still investigating.
Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Mou-hsin (黃謀信) said that prosecutors’ offices daily receive new information about incidents involving election signature drives, adding that he could not estimate the precise number of reports they have received.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that district prosecutors’ offices would pursue all incidents that contravene the law.
Tsai said that if prosecutors discover anomalies or suspect bribery related to signature drives, they would follow the money to find the source.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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