The fairness of Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections is in question after nationwide reports of the improper handling of cases of suspected vote-buying by the police and judiciary, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
Lee Chin-yung (李進勇), the DPP legislative candidate in Yunlin County’s first district, and Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國), the DPP legislative candidate in Yunlin’s second district, had been on a hunger strike since -Tuesday night in front of the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office to protest a raid on Lee’s campaign headquarters in Tuku Township (土庫) earlier that day, which the two claimed was an act of political repression.
Chiang Teh-lung (蔣得龍), chief of the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office, said his office had received reports that alleged Chen Wei-teh (陳威德), one of Lee’s campaigners, was involved in election betting prior to raid, adding that the investigation was legal even though the office found no evidence of wrongdoing and did not confiscate any documents.
Photo: Lin Kuo-hsien, Taipei Times
Lee and Liu, who decided to suspend their campaign activities, ended the hunger strike yesterday afternoon after a visit by DPP vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), who urged the two to carry on campaigning.
Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chi-fen (蘇治芬) voiced support for her party comrades, saying that the judiciary was turning a blind eye to prevalent vote-buying in the pan-blue camp to carry out selective enforcement against DPP politicians.
In Chiayi County, another hunger strike ended yesterday as Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), a former DPP legislator and father of a DPP legislative candidate in the county’s first district, Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘), was sent to a hospital at 11am for dehydration and dizziness.
Photo: Lin Kuo-hsien, Taipei Times
Tsai Chi-fang said the local judiciary and police were ignoring vote-buying allegations against the pan-blue camp and he began his hunger strike on Jan. 4 in front of the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office.
DPP spokesperson Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成) told a press conference in Taipei that the judiciary’s inaction in the face of widespread vote-buying allegations against the pan-blue camp was unjust.
DPP mayors and commissioners in six cities and counties — Greater Kaohsiung and Greater Tainan, as well as Chiayi, Yunlin, Pingtung and Yilan counties — have issued a joint statement urging fair and stringent investigations into vote-buying, Kang said.
Vote-buying in Greater Taichung, Changhua and Nantou counties has caused great concern, she added.
Commenting on the Yunlin case, DPP lawyer Lin Hung-wen (林鴻文) said the raid was highly questionable and appeared to be unnecessary because the prosecutors did not gather evidence.
Meanwhile, Ho Po-wen (何博文), the DPP legislative candidate for New Taipei City’s (新北市) first district, yesterday said local police used violence against his wife while she was campaigning at a local market in Linkou District (林口) on Tuesday morning.
Chiu Chin-an (邱槿桉), Ho’s wife, said police punched and pushed her, as well as her staffers, because they were campaigning in the same place as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking a second term.
In response, Tsai Yao-kun (蔡耀坤), director of the New Taipei City Police Department’s Sinjhuang Precinct, said members of Ho’s campaign were asked to keep a distance from the designated point of arrival of the presidential motorcade, which is standard procedure, adding that officers did not use violence.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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