It was an unofficial and low-profile election, but results of yesterday's vote for prosecutor chiefs will have a large impact on whether the country's prosecutors can conduct criminal investigations independent of undue intervention, the Prosecutors Reform Association (
Overshadowed by publicity for the presidential campaign, the association's poll took place in a quiet but vibrant atmosphere.
Thirty-eight out of a total of 101 district prosecutor candidates were selected as qualified for the position of chief prosecutor and 27 out of 71 were chosen as qualified to be high court prosecutors.
The results of the vote, in which over 90 percent of the nation's prosecutors took part, are non-binding.
Nevertheless, the association will forward the chosen candidates' names to the personnel evaluation committee of the Ministry of Justice to use as a reference. The committee is to meet in March to decide on the annual reshuffle of prosecutor assignments.
Yesterday's election, according to the association, was designed to allow the country's lower-level prosecutors to have a say on matters concerning the collective quality of the prosecutorial system.
"To many it's only a matter regarding the prosecutors themselves. But without a bottom-up selection process, it will be impossible to maintain prosecutorial independence, and undue interference from upper-levels will continue to deter effective law enforcement by our prosecutors," said Chen Jui-jen (
Currently, there is one prosecutors' office for the Supreme Court, six for the High Court, and 20 for district courts nationwide. Each prosecutors' office is headed by a prosecutor-general. In each office, a chief prosecutor supervises four or five prosecutors.
The powers of the prosecutor-generals are so wide -- ranging from giving instructions on the direction of an investigation to reversing prosecutions -- that their selection has a great impact on the workings of the prosecutorial system.
At present, prosecutor-generals are appointed by the justice minister, who normally makes his selection from among the chief prosecutors and high court prosecutors. The minister also appoints the chief prosecutors.
The personnel evaluation committee has power to approve the minister's appointments. The problem with the top to bottom system, critics argue, is that those appointed are often not those who are good at investigative work, but those who are good at managing relations with their supervisors.
The association, which has long pressed for internal reforms in the prosecutorial system, staged its first election for chief prosecutors in July 1998, followed by an election for chief prosecutors and high court prosecutors in May of last year.
Regardless of the informality of its elections, the association claims it has contributed to a more democratic personnel selection within the prosecutorial system. It says the results of the two previous elections had a great impact on the ministry's selection of the chief prosecutors and high court prosecutors in the last two years.
"Eighty percent of the ministry's appointees were actually those elected by prosecutors nationwide," Chen claimed.
"We might have doubts over the disadvantages of elections, but they could be an alternative to the existing process, which is unable to select qualified candidates."
RSS