Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Chang Sho-wen’s (張碩文) father completed the registration process to run in the Yunlin County by-election yesterday morning, vowing to finish Chang’s term as a legislator.
Chang Sho-wen, who won a regional legislative election in Yunlin County in January last year, lost his seat earlier this month after the High Court found him guilty of participating in a vote-buying scheme organized by his father and annulled the election result.
Chang Hui-yuan (張輝元), director of Yunlin’s Irrigation Association, visited the KMT’s Yunlin branch yesterday to register for his candidacy in the party’s primary for the by-election.
PHOTO: CNA
“I can’t put up with it anymore. We’ve been patient during my son’s trial but we can’t be humiliated again and again,” Chang Hui-yuan said
Chang Hui-yuan was accompanied by Chang Sho-wen and local political heavyweights, including former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) and a group of supporters.
Chang Jung-wei issued his support for Chang Sho-wen and accused his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart of interfering with justice.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) met with Chang Jung-wei and Chang Sho-wen later in the afternoon to talk about the party candidate for the by-election.
Chang Hui-yuan will be competing with Wu Wei-chi (吳威志), an associate professor at Yunlin Technology University, who said he would represent the party better with a clean image.
Chang Hui-yuan was found guilty of vote-buying in the first trial. He appealed the case.
Chang Sho-wen complained to Wu about being wrongly convicted, and said his father would not rule out the possibility of taking part in the by-election as an independent candidate if the party did not nominate him.
The KMT will have to determine whether or not Chang Hui-yuan is qualified as a party candidate because the revised version of the KMT’s “black gold exclusion clause” (排黑條款) states that members who are found guilty of corruption at their initial trial are not to be nominated in any elections.
The KMT is scheduled to complete the nomination process on July 29.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at