Free exhibitions for a cooking class where participants were invited to enjoy students' work may have been an illegal attempt to "buy" votes for candidates in Chiayi, Ministry of Justice investigators said yesterday.
But organizers of the events scoffed at the idea, saying the DPP government was being overzealous in its crackdown on vote-buying and calling a raid on KMT offices in Chiayi yesterday an example of "green terror."
Acting on a tip, investigators raided the KMT's headquarters in Chuchi township (竹崎), taking away evidence of the cooking-class exhibitions that included pictures of the events, an account book and papers promoting the affairs.
Investigators also detained Ho Hsin-yi (
According to ministry investigators, the Women's Federation hosted dinner parties, gave away free meal tickets and invited KMT legislative and mayoral candidates to attend the events -- which may have broken the law.
The most recent exhibition was held on Wednesday night.
But Tsai Keng-yi (
"Our Women's Federation was just having an exhibition of their cooking class," Tsai said.
"It was very natural for us to invite our KMT candidates to join us and introduce themselves to everybody. It had nothing to do with vote-buying," Tsai added.
Tsai said that including Wednesday night's event, the Women's Federation has held 11 exhibitions of their cooking class.
The KMT official said candidates for other political parties attended previous exhibitions and all 11 events were open to the public.
"The DPP is trying hard to oppress other political parties," said Justin Chou (
"It's very ugly for them to do so. When government officials use their political influence ... to create a `green terror,' how can they ask citizens to trust the judiciary?" said Chou.
The term "green terror" is a play on the term "White Terror," a period of time in which thousands of Taiwan's most prominent citizens and intellectuals were rounded up, killed or vanished without explanation as the KMT waged a war against the Japanese-educated intelligentsia.
In related news, Nantou County prosecutors indicted 12 people in three separate vote-buying cases yesterday.
A prosecutor in Nantou said six friends and relatives of a candidate were charged with paying for a junket for voters.
Details surrounding the two other cases were unclear.
A ministry official said five people have been taken into custody so far on vote-buying charges and 16 others freed on bail.
Prosecutors are investigating 998 people after receiving tip-offs and have summoned 151 people for questioning, he added.
In addition yesterday, the government released a TV commercial featuring President Chen Shui-bian (
"Initially, we thought that President Chen might be very busy and might not be able to help," Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) said.
"So we were planning to cut and paste some footage of the president's previous speeches and add his voice-over. To our astonishment, President Chen said he would spare some time" to participate," the minister said.
In the spot, the president encourages voters not to be afraid to turn down a bribe offered in exchange for a vote. He goes on to say that vote-buying captains -- who do the leg-work of getting money into the hands of voters -- should realize that their bosses won't be willing to take the rap for them if caught.
"I think vote-buying captains should open their eyes," Chen says in the advertisement.
"Nowadays, candidates who are trying to buy votes are very smart. They will ask their vote-buying captains to do it for them instead of showing up personally.
"But once vote-buying captains are caught, the candidates will immediately say that it has nothing to do with them. So it's not worth working for these candidates, trying to buy votes for them," he continues.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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