The Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office has filed corruption charges to invalidate the victory of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan City Councilor Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) in the Nov. 29 election, while prosecutors also began investigating the Greater Tainan City Council speaker’s election amid allegations of vote-buying involving some Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors.
Lee was elected as speaker for the council on Dec. 25, with the DPP alleging that some DPP city councilors voted for Lee in return for money offered by the KMT, which holds only 19 seats in the 57-seat city council.
Lee called the move a political one spurred by the DPP due to the party’s loss of the speaker’s position.
The office filed the charges on the same day the DPP’s Central Review Committee expelled five Tainan city councilors for voting against the party line in last week’s council speaker election.
The office on Wednesday said that prosecutors have secured evidence that Lee’s campaign director, Huang Cheng-ching (黃澄清), and campaign chief executive, Yeh Chih-cheng (葉枝成), had held meetings and distributed NT$2 million (US$63,000) from campaign activity funds to local vote brokers before the election.
Huang had provided NT$300,000 to warden candidate Lee Li-hua (李麗華), who then gave out NT$5,000 per household as bribes for votes, the office said.
Prosecutors filed corruption charges against Lee Chuan-chiao seeking to invalidate his victory in the city councilor election.
The Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) stipulates that “a lawsuit claiming an electee is invalid” must be filed in the governing court within 30 days after the list of electees is announced.
The court would have to close the case in its first and second instances within six months, and “[the election lawsuit] shall be adjudicated conclusively in the second instance, and no lawsuit of rehearing may be filed,” it says.
In other words, it could take up to a year before there is a decision on whether Lee can keep his councilor seat.
The office asked the council for the ballots used in the speaker election on Wednesday night, but that was rejected on the grounds that, according to the council, the responsible official was out of the country and that the party caucuses’ ballot monitors were absent.
The prosecutors said that they would visit the council again on Monday and that they have stationed police at all of the building’s entrances to make sure that the sealed ballot box is not tampered with.
As of Wednesday, the district prosecutors’ offices in Greater Tainan, Greater Taoyuan and Changhua, Taitung and Nantou counties have filed lawsuits to invalidate the elections of city councilors, township councilors and village wardens.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to