Figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) yesterday show that 22 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) election candidates have been detained on suspicion of illegal campaigning methods, while six from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been detained.
The ministry yesterday released the latest figures on cases of bribery and intimidation under investigation by local prosecutors related to next Saturday’s local government elections.
Ministry statistics showed that a majority of detained candidates were from the KMT (22 people), followed by 10 candidates whose party membership was still unclear, six candidates from the DPP and six others who had no party affiliation.
Of the candidates who have been issued with indictments, 19 were not attached to any party, three were from the KMT and there were three whose party affiliation is unclear.
In the mayor and county commissioner elections, 25 new bribery allegations have been added this week, bringing the total to 128. Three allegations of violence have been reported so far.
In the city and county councilor elections, 220 new bribery allegations surfaced this week, bringing the total to 807 cases, while four new allegations of violence were added to a total of 50 existing cases.
As for the township chief elections, 518 allegations of bribery are currently being investigated (114 of them are new) and 15 allegations of violence have been reported (three new).
People reporting information about alleged illegality could be eligible for rewards of up to NT$5 million (US$154,800) for tips involving mayoral and county commissioner elections, NT$2 million for councilor elections and NT$500,000 for township chief elections, the ministry said.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe