Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday warned that the party would take legal action against members who make false accusations about the DPP's primary race.
The dispute over the DPP's primary to select a candidate for the position of Taichung County commissioner escalated as one of the candidates, former DPP legislator Lin Feng-hsi (
The protesters backed Lin's claim that a telephone poll conducted in the second part of the primary race was unfair. They demanded that the party redo the survey.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lin, who is competing with former DPP vice chairman Chiu Tai-san (
The DPP originally planned to announce its Taichung County candidate on Tuesday, and the telephone poll was done on Monday evening. According to the survey, Chiu came out on top and as such would have been selected as the candidate representing the DPP, but Lin said he suspects that one of the three survey companies falsified the results.
Lin's supporters, who came from Taichung County, wore red caps and yelled "the poll is unfair!" and "redo the survey!"
They lingered at the DPP's headquarters until about 4pm yesterday.
In reaction to Lin's gesture, DPP secretary-general Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said yesterday that he could not identify with a candidate who tries to boost his own campaign by leading his supporters in a protest at the DPP's headquarters, and who makes groundless accusations against the party.
"The breakdown of the monitor, which only lasted for 15 minutes, had nothing to do with the accusations of `manmade unfairness' Lin has made," Lee said.
He said that the monitor in question had been used to supervise the telephone survey, and was not connected to one of the machines used to conduct the actual survey.
"It makes no sense to connect such a simple malfunction with injustice," Lee said. "I cannot accept that Lin accused the DPP of manipulating the sampling of the telephone survey. [His claim] is absolutely untrue."
Lee said that the DPP has agreed to redo one of the three surveys because of the electronic malfunction.
However, Lin's request that the other two surveys should also be thrown out makes no sense, Lee said.
Wu Hsiang-jung (
"We can understand that candidates are highly concerned about their polls, but the DPP will take the necessary action to deal with libel," Wu said.
"We will not allow a specific person's irresponsible remarks to hurt the primary system which the DPP has used for decades, and which has won credibility," Lee said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese