On the basis of a confession allegedly faxed from Los Angeles by a former Changhua County deputy commissioner, DPP legislative candidate Chiang Chao-yi (江昭儀) filed suit yesterday against the KMT for buying votes during last year's presidential election.
The Changhua District's Prosecutors' Office (
On Sept. 23 this year, Chiang received the alleged confession by fax, apparently from Chang. Chiang transferred the fax to Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Chiang approached a man who claims to be a KMT legislator and a close friend of Chang to authenticate the statement. The legislator added a statement to the fax, stating that Chang's signature was genuine, but insisting on remaining anonymous. The fax was then sent to the justice minister.
"The Ministry of Justice is making no official comment about the [alleged] Chang statement at this moment," said Chen at a press conference yesterday. "The prosecutors know how to deal with it and they will continue to investigate the case."
The alleged confession states that the KMT set aside NT$270 million to buy votes in Changhua District for the presidential election. He says that he received the order from the KMT's Changhua County headquarters to use NT$50 million to buy as many votes as possible. He personally received that sum at 3pm on March 10 last year.
Chang says he was in charge of buying votes in Yuanlin (
Approximately 900,000 people were registered as voters in Changhua County for the presidential election.
"The Changhua Water Conservancy Association Chairman Chen Ding-yun (陳釘雲), Changhua County Commissioner Juan Kang-meng (阮剛猛), Changhua County Council Speaker Pei Hung-san (白鴻森) and KMT Changhua County Headquarters Director Lay Min-yueh (雷民悅) were the four major players in Changhua County during the presidential election," the statement says.
"Other than asking for money from the governor, we also requested more monetary support from Chang Chang-pang (張昌邦), the former deputy minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs -- who is now the chairman of the KMT business committee -- during his regular visits to Changhua County," the statement added.
It also says that Chen, Juan, Pei, Lay and Chang often visited Chao Shou-po (趙守博), the former Taiwan governor who is now the head of the KMT's Organization and Development Committee, to request more funds.
The statement also says that Yeh Ching-feng (
Yeh was the Minister of Justice when the alleged vote-buying occurred. She was recalled by the KMT to run for z congressional seat in Changhua district this year.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
RSS