There are forces at work trying to block efforts by People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to collect enough signatures on a petition to take part in the presidential election, Soong said recently.
PFP personnel said Soong’s campaign efforts are being blocked by government officials, while military and educational personnel, as well civil servants, were being encouraged not to help with petition collection work.
Even veterans are being closely watched by local Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chapters, a PFP source said, citing the example of unknown persons taking away petition letters in a veterans’ village in the Banciao District (板橋) of New Taipei City (新北市).
Photo: CNA
Investigations into the incident turned up nothing, PFP spokesman Wu Kun-yu (吳崑玉) said on Saturday, adding that they would improve security to prevent anything similar happening again.
Wu said that a slanderous letter titled “A public message to Mr James Soong” had been mailed to homes in Taoyuan County on Sept. 27, with similar missive also appearing in Nantou County, New Taipei City and Hsinchu City.
As Soong is still collecting signatures for his presidential bid and has yet to officially enter the race, the PFP is unable to take legal action against those they allege are attempting to undermine a candidate’s chances in an election, Wu said.
A lawyer has been consulted to determine whether the party had grounds to sue for actions designed to force a potential candidates to withdraw from the presidential election, Wu added, but the lawyer said there was no such crime.
As for claims that government officials were impeding petition collection, Wu said he had heard that Miaoli County government ordered all civil servants not to help with the petition effort, adding that it was a verbal order rather than a written directive.
Other PFP sources said that a certain township representative had informed them township chiefs had been told not to help Soong if they valued their government subsidies. As a result only more high profile officials such as Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁), former Miaoli County commissioner Fu Hsueh-peng (傅學鵬), retired county commissioners, provincial councilors and corporations were willing to help with collect signatures for Soong, Wu said.
An 80 year-old retired major who helped the PFP in Taoyuan County’s Bade township (八德) was visited six times by KMT personnel, ranging from a section chief to the county party headquarters’ deputy chairman, a PFP source said.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
‘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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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
RSS