Ninety-two reports of alleged breaches of election laws and regulations governing conduct at or around polling stations had been made by 4pm yesterday, the National Police Agency said.
Forty-nine of the incidents involved possession or use of a recording device, 18 incidents concerned the destruction or unauthorized removal of ballots and 13 were over promotion of a political candidate, it said, with nine others classified as miscellaneous offenses.
Police responded to 54 other incidents, but did not deem them to be serious infractions, the agency said.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
The nation’s 22 electoral management bodies of the Central Election Commission have the final say in deciding whether an incident in their jurisdiction constitutes a prosecutable breach of election laws, it said.
An elevated state of alert was to remain in effect until after all the votes were counted, it said.
Taipei police briefly detained Lee Hui-hsin (李慧曦), a legislative candidate for the Judicial Revolution Party, after a row at a polling station in Wanhua District (萬華), a police spokesperson said.
At about 10am, Lee engaged in a loud and disruptive argument with election workers over the handling of several ballot boxes, which she said were not properly sealed, police said.
Lee did not comply with police officers’ repeated orders for her to vacate the premises and was escorted away following an altercation, they said, adding that the incident is to be handled by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
The Tainan City Election Commission said that a false report of a series of stabbings at local polling stations might have been an effort by “external forces” to undermine election integrity.
The report, which was picked up by news media including My Formosa and Chinese Television System News, originated from a Telegram post timestamped 9:19am, the commission said, citing an ongoing investigation by the Tainan Police Department.
The post on the messaging app — which included graphic photographs of injuries to supposed victims — said that more than 10 assailants in a white van were carrying out knife attacks at polling stations in the city, Tainan police officials said.
The Chinese-language report had several characters in simplified form and its content was entirely false, the commission said, adding that the account that first posted the story has since been deleted.
The message has been reported to police and prosecutors as a possible case of election interference, it said.
Separately, a Kaohsiung woman was questioned by police after her two-year-old daughter tore up her ballot in a tantrum at a polling station, the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Fongshan Precinct said.
Election workers had allowed the woman to bring the toddler inside the polling station out of consideration, but called the police when the child destroyed her mother’s ballot to select a party for their legislator-at-large list, it said.
Voters had been urged to leave children six or younger with security guards or election workers instead of bringing them into polling booths, precinct head Tsai Hung-mou (蔡鴻謀) said.
Additional reporting by Chen Wen-chan
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese