The number of reported vote-buying cases in relation to the legislative elections on Saturday exceeds 6,000 and involves more than 9,000 people, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday.
Lu made the remarks while campaigning for Hualien County Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative candidate Lu Po-chi (
Lu called on voters to report vote-buying cases to the authorities and warned candidates not to take their chances, as the authorities had plans in place to crack down on vote buying.
DETACHMENT
In preparation for the elections, 1,500 investigators have been assigned to the anti-vote buying detachment.
All are required to stay on duty until the elections are over, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
Urging investigative authorities to step up their crackdown on vote-buying during the final week before the legislative elections, Chang said law enforcement officers should put aside their personal political preferences to ensure that an efficient legislature is created through clean elections.
The elections, in which the single-member district and two-vote system (
Also, the reduction of the number of seats in the new legislature -- from 225 to 113 -- will double the power of legislators, Chang said.
Chang said that it would be a national disaster if the legislature, which is responsible for monitoring the executive branch of government, were controlled by vote buyers.
CAMPAIGN
Last month, civic groups including Taiwan Society held a news conference to highlight their campaign against vote-buying and said the influence of bribery was far-reaching, adding that courts had been lenient in punishing violations in the past.
The groups have sought much tougher penalties for vote-buying, from the current prison term of three to 10 years to a minimum penalty of five years.
Punishment for individuals who are found to have received bribes, they said, should be increased to between one year and seven years and/or fined between NT$50,000 and NT$500,000.
Existing penalties for receiving bribes are three years imprisonment and/or a fine of NT$5,000, the groups said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS