Lin Hsing-er (林杏兒) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might be denied her post as a Taipei city councilor after the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday filed a civil case regarding the Nov. 26 election in Taipei’s first electoral district.
Prosecutors also issued an arrest warrant for KMT Central Standing Committee member Hsiao Ching-tien (蕭景田), a former legislator, after he failed to respond to a summons regarding alleged vote-buying.
Prosecutors in the past few days have questioned Lin and other KMT members about the alleged cash-for-votes scheme leading up to last month’s election, which decided posts in the city’s Shilin (士林) and Beitou (北投) districts.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
The prosecutors’ office is seeking to invalidate the votes for Lin.
Hsiao was the main financial backer of Lin’s campaign. He has been accused of leading a cash-for-votes scheme.
Prosecutors questioned more than 20 borough wardens and Tseng Fan-chuan (曾繁川), head of the electoral district’s KMT chapter.
Prosecutors said that they have sufficient evidence to press charges, including witness testimony, recordings of telephone calls in which Tseng allegedly instructed borough wardens to distribute money and ask people to vote for Lin.
Evidence shows that some wardens received NT$10,000 (US$325.65), prosecutors said.
Lin is the KMT’s deputy spokeswoman. She was previously a member of the party’s Central Standing Committee.
Hsiao owns hotels and has other business interests in Shilin and Beitou, including the Grand View Resort Beitou Hotel. He also owns the Grand View Hotel in Changhua County’s Yuanlin City (員林市).
Hsiao has been accused of having ties to criminal gangs in Changhua County. He was elected as a legislator for one term from 2008 to 2012, despite a conviction for transporting a body in a case in which a police officer was killed.
He disclosed stocks and bank account deposits totaling NT$1.874 billion and more than 70 properties in 2011.
He is head of the KMT’s Changhua County Chapter and an executive member of the Taiwan Tourist Hotel Association.
Hsiao reportedly left Taiwan on a flight on Wednesday.
KMT officials said that he was on holiday and would respond to his summons on his return.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the KMT was negligent to “permit such a notorious figure to be involved in politics.”
DPP lawmakers on Dec. 5 proposed legislation to bar convicted criminals and gangsters from seeking public office, with Hsiao presented as an example of who should not be allowed to run.
“The KMT must end its double standard,” Su said. “It castigates other parties, saying they are tainted by ties to gangsters, even voicing support for the DPP’s proposal, but it continues to nominate convicted criminals and alleged gangsters for county speaker and deputy speaker offices.”
“Now the KMT has a Central Standing Committee member who is a wanted criminal embroiled in a vote-buying case,” he said. “I believe the public would not tolerate such a situation.”
‘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
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
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS