In a bid to crack down on vote-buying in Saturday's Hualien County commissioner by-election, Minster of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
Meanwhile, National Police Administration (NPA) Director-General Chang Si-liang (張四良) said police in Hualien have already reported 119 possible vote-buying cases including some involving the campaigns of all three leading candidates.
Five candidates are competing for the seat: candidate No. 1, Independent Wu Kuo-tung (
Polls give Hsieh a comfortable lead over his two main rivals, Wu and You.
At a public security meeting in Hualien, Yu said he has transferred 464 police from Taipei and Kaohsiung cities to tackle vote-buying cases. The police will conduct frequent checks and searches 24 hours a day.
However, Yu's plan was immediately attacked by the opposition camp.
"The DPP is turning Hualien County into a police county," KMT Spokesman Alex Tsai (
In response to the criticism, Chang said the NPA will maintain its neutrality during the crackdown.
The police head also said that of the 119 vote-buying cases being dealt with by authorities, supporters of Hsieh, You and Wu are involved in at least some of them. According to Chang, local prosecutors are currently investigating these cases.
However, Chang's remarks were criticized as violating the "non-disclosure principle" of an ongoing investigation.
"The claim [of the possible cases] is bullshit!" said Yang Ta-chih (
The chief prosecutor also condemned the Ministry of the Interior and the NPA for constantly interfering with local prosecutors' investigations.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
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