The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) yesterday said it had launched 984 investigations involving 1,447 individuals in relation to the special municipality elections to be held next month.
Unveiling the statistics, the ministry said prosecutors had probed 46 cases related to the five municipal mayoral races, 419 related to the municipal councilor polls and 519 cases related to borough elections.
Of the 984 cases, 900 concerned vote buying, involving 1,321 individuals. Thirty cases, involving 51 individuals, concerned election-related violence, and 54 cases, with 75 people involved, were related to slander suits over the elections.
So far, prosecutors have indicted two individuals on suspicion of vote buying, the ministry said.
The Democratic Progressive Party, which has called on the ministry to combat vote buying, said it feared Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates could again engage in the practice.
Several KMT candidates were indicted or found guilty of vote buying during last year’s three-in-one elections and in the most recent legislative election.
Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) yesterday encouraged the public to refer any vote buying activity to prosecutors, adding that such behavior would not be tolerated.
The special municipality elections will be held on Nov. 27 for Taipei City, Sinbei City (the soon-to-be-upgraded Taipei County), Greater Taichung (a merger of Taichung city and county), Greater Tainan (a merger of Tainan city and county) and Greater Kao-hsiung (a merger of Kaohsiung city and county).
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56