Speculation of vote-buying in the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) legislative primary was rife yesterday, with Zanadau majority shareholder Su Hui-chen (蘇惠珍) accusing Sunny Bank chairwoman Hsueh Ling (薛凌) of involvement in election bribery.
Su said she had proof that Hsueh extended loans to a fellow DPP lawmaker in exchange for party members' vote in the primary elections.
Su, a former DPP member, said she had helped buy votes for Hsueh's husband, DPP Legislator Chen Sheng-hung (陳勝宏), three years ago and that this time the couple had used the same method of granting excess loans as a bribe.
Su accused Hsueh of breach of trust for extending excess loans amounting to hundreds of millions of NT dollars through Sunny Bank to DPP Legislator Lin Chin-hsing (
Lin sold the house back to Sunny Bank in 2002. Su said Lin also charged the bank an amount of rent that was unreasonable.
"Is that the way Hsueh said she has been providing service to her supporters?
How does this enable her to get the top place on the legislator-at-large candidates list?" Su said.
She said she was prompted to disclose Hsueh's vote-buying behavior because Hsueh, Chen and Lin recently called a press conference to dismiss any rumors of involvement in vote-buying.
"They should have felt ashamed of themselves. They put on a huge press conference fanfare to deliver their false arguments. That's just way too arrogant!" Su said.
In response to Su's accusations, DPP headquarters said that any accusation should be based on facts, and the party could only start the investigation once written documents detailing evidence of the fraud were presented.
Su said she would hand in the documents, consisting of records of excess loans between Lin and Sunny Bank, this morning.
Meanwhile, Su yesterday said she would request DPP headquarters to grant secret witness rights to party members who would testify against Hsueh under the condition of anonymity and exemption from party discipline.
Both Hsueh and Lin yesterday refuted Su's allegations. Lin said he did not take loans from Sunny Bank, while Hsueh said the accusation was merely Su retaliating about an election dispute three years ago.
Cabinet
Meanwhile, the Cabinet is considering letting the Central Election Commission (CEC) hold primaries for political parties in a bid to curb vote-buying, Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced yesterday.
"It doesn't sound like a bad idea to have an independent government entity handle the matter impartially and fairly," Yu said.
Yu made the remark yesterday afternoon in response to one of the questions filed by the media during a question-and-answer session at a government tea party.
According to Yu, the Ministry of the Interior and the commission have been working on amending existing laws to authorize the commission to hold primaries.
Yu also pledged to solicit opinions from all stakeholders before the Cabinet makes a final decision.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS