Cash prizes are to be awarded this year to Taipei borough wardens who get their constituents to polling stations in an effort to increase voter turnout in the Nov. 29 elections, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Civil Affairs Commissioner Huang Lu Ching-ju (黃呂錦茹) said yesterday.
She made her remarks at a press conference alongside people representing immigrants and young voters, urging city residents of all backgrounds to vote. The department is responsible for the city’s election budget.
While Taipei’s voter turnout has historically been higher than that of most other cities and counties, apathy toward the mayoral candidates could hinder the department reaching its voter turnout goal of 71 percent, Huang said.
The previous mayoral election in 2009 had a 70.65 percent voter turnout, according to department statistics.
Huang said that next month, the department would provide cash rewards to borough wardens, borough administrative secretaries and district offices for increasing voter turnout in their respective boroughs or districts.
Borough chiefs and administrative secretaries would be given a supermarket gift card for NT$1,000 for each percentage point that voter turnout in their boroughs exceeds 71 percent, she said, adding that district offices which reach this goal would be given NT$10,000 to be divided among their workers.
She said that this would be the first time that such a financial reward for increasing voter turnout has been provided during a mayoral election.
National Taiwan University politics professor Wang Ye-li (王業立) yesterday said that while it was impossible to predict how effective the new measures would be at increasing the voting rate, any increase would likely benefit the campaign of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文).
Although voter affiliation in Taipei is strongly tilted toward the pan-blue camp, the KMT’s supporters have been apathetic about Lien’s candidacy, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏), the spokeswoman for independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), yesterday said “the majority of borough wardens belong to the KMT.”
“We call on the Taipei City Government to maintain neutrality and avoid excess executive intervention in the election,” she said, adding that the voting rate in normal democratic countries is about 50 percent, unless there is extreme political polarization.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS