Police and Coast Guard officials yesterday told a Taiwan High Court hearing that none of their personnel had been deterred from voting in the presidential election because of heightened alert after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) were shot on March 19.
"We always follow the standard procedure when carrying out necessary security measures in different situations," Liu Shih-lin (劉世林), deputy director-general of the National Police Agency said.
"During the presidential election on March 20, we did not do anything out of the ordinary," he said
Liu said that according to regulations for the presidential election, officers had to suspend their regular off days and report to work in case of an emergency. However, the agency also asked local police departments, precincts and stations to allow their officers to leave temporarily if they wished to vote.
"Most officers would have given up their right to vote to go home and sleep because they were simply too tired after work," Liu said.
"As for the total number of officers who did not vote, the agency never counted them," he said.
Liu made his testimony during a High Court hearing yesterday morning. Regarding the March 19 assassination attempt on the president and vice president, Liu testified that the agency learned of the incident from TV news.
"We heard the news at 2:25pm on March 19. But, around 2:33pm, the Tainan Police Department reported that the president and vice president were injured by firecrackers, which was later corrected and confirmed as an assassination attempt," Liu said.
According to the schedule for this week's hearings, presiding Judge Wu Ching-yuan (吳景源) will repeatedly summon head officials from the nation's military, police, security and coast guard services to figure out whether any personnel were forced to give up voting because of the activation of the so-called "national security mechanism" after the assassination attempt -- an action the pan-blue camp claims cost them the presidential election.
Coast Guard Deputy Director Yu Chien-tzu (游乾賜) testified that the Coast Guard Administration did not recall staff because of the shooting, although, following a request made by former coast guard director Wang Chun (王郡), the staff who were on duty were on a heightened alert in case those involved in the shooting attempted to flee the country.
"We have 15,825 staff members, and according to our statistics, 3,795 of them did not vote," Yu told the hearing.
"But according to our investigation, these people did not vote because their bases were too far away from polling stations," he said.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
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
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS