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.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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