A folk ritual event sponsored by CPC Corp, Taiwan, in Hualien County in December was used as a campaign event for a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidate, which could constitute a violation of election law, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator said yesterday, vowing to file a lawsuit.
State-owned CPC provided NT$200,000 to sponsor a religious ceremony organized by Cheng An Temple in Sincheng Township (新城), Hualien County, on Dec. 15, but the ceremony was used to campaign for KMT candidate Timothy Wang (王廷升) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a press conference in Taipei.
The sponsorship amount actually exceeded the company’s internal regulations on sponsorship, which limits local folk event sponsorships to a maximum of NT$30,000, Hsiao said, adding that the ceremony became a campaigning event for a specific party and candidate — another violation of corporate regulations.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Wang defeated DPP candidate Lie Kuen-cheng (賴坤成), while Ma was re-elected in the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections.
Vote buying in Hualien County has been notoriously rampant for a long time, said Lie, who has also filed a complaint with the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office against several borough chiefs for vote buying for Wang.
Lie said he had reported the Cheng An Temple case to the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office before the election, but the office had yet to open an investigation.
Lie said he would file a lawsuit in a bid to invalidate Wang’s victory.
The DPP candidate had previously said he was confident Wang’s win would be voided and that there would be a by-election required in Hualien because he had concrete evidence of vote buying and illegal campaign acts.
Speaking at the same press conference, Julius Chen (陳容), CPC’s director of industrial relations, said the company always offered greater sponsorship amounts for events in Sincheng Township, where one of the company’s large oil depots is located.
The company had provided NT$200,000 for the event instead of NT$30,000 because the ceremony was changed from a one-day ceremony to a three-day event, Chen said.
Prosecutor Hong San-feng (洪三峰) denied any suggestions that the local prosecutors were ignoring the case, saying investigations into possible vote buying were usually harder than people imagined because of the difficulties involved in gathering evidence.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
RSS