Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) yesterday pledged to crack down on vote-buying ahead of elections of agricultural and fishery associations (農漁會).
"The elections will take place after the Lunar New Year holiday, so it is likely that candidates will bribe voters during the holiday," Shih said. "But I pledge that there is no `legal holiday' during the holiday; prosecutors nationwide will crack down on any vote-buying activities."
The Supreme Court Prosecutors Office will form a task force today to lead the crack down activity, and district prosecutors' offices nationwide will also form a task force today, Shih added.
The head of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, Chu Nan (
"The Kaohsiung Prosecutors' Office has received a number of accusations ... and we will investigate these cases," he added.
In addition, Chu said, prosecutors will visit and communicate with electoral candidates in order to deter vote-buying.
Shih said that "clean agricultural and fishery associations' elections would create cleaner and healthier associations."
The agricultural and fishery associations have been seen as roots of `black gold' politics.
Local political faction leaders have been competing for leading posts in agricultural and fishery associations, and using the associations' credit cooperatives as illegal financial resources to bribe voters in a range of popular elections, Shih said.
Shih added that credit cooperatives of agricultural and fishery associations frequently grant illegal loans to people from local factions, creating the potential for financial crises.
The agricultural and fishery associations' elections will take place separately after the Lunar New Year holiday. The associations elect directors every four years.
President Chen planned to reform these associations and eradicate their credit cooperatives in 2002, but failed due to a demonstration in which over 120,000 people protested against the plan.
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
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
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS