Taiwan has entered a new era in ensuring clean elections, with technology helping to fight illegal money transfers, misinformation and other criminal activities during campaigning, Taipei prosecutors said yesterday as they opened a new election command center.
Equipped with the latest in telecommunications and digital technology, the center began operations at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office with a trial run overseen by Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥).
“The new technology assembled here will bolster? our efforts to monitor and crack down on election irregularities, and all public prosecutors ?are ready to undertake this work,”? Tsai said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Upgrading technology to monitor vote-buying during campaigning is just one of the center’s tasks, as it would also serve as a public warning to candidates not to breach election laws or undertake criminal actions, as all prosecutors’ offices nationwide are to establish their own teams for next year’s elections, he said.
Taipei Chief District Prosecutor Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) headed up the drive to establish the unit, which officials ?hailed as the nation’s first high-tech center for investigating illegal money flows, tracing criminal groups’ financing and combating international money laundering.
The first of three main focus areas at the center is preventing illegal funds, misinformation and violence by criminal gangs from interfering in elections, Hsing said.
“Second, the center is to apply the new technology to become a platform to coordinate investigations and compile information on vote-buying,” he said. “Third, it will enhance the public’s understanding about clean elections by educating people to refuse money offered by candidates and campaign workers in exchange for their vote.”
The center gives prosecutors the ability to conduct questioning via remote network monitoring and video conferencing; technology for digitalling collecting evidence and transmitting it to investigators in the field; as well as a national database on illegal election-related activities.
Preparations are under way to launch other centers next month in eight other jurisdictions in six more cities, Tsai said, adding that the digital and networking capabilities would be expanded to all district prosecutors’ offices nationwide by the end of October.
Once all of the centers are operational, the presidential and legislative elections in January next year would be their first major undertaking, officials said.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from