The Ministry of Justice hosted a cross-ministry conference yesterday aimed at seeking solutions to rampant vote-buying in the elections of farmer and fishermen associations' representatives.
The officials are elected every four years, and the next elections are scheduled for spring. As the posts offer control of township or district credit cooperatives, the elections are always hard fought battles between local factions.
This has led to many instances of vote-buying, and many of the associations are reportedly controlled by gangsters.
According to MOJ data, 397 people in 91 cases have been indicted on charges concerning vote-buying in 1997's farmer's associations' elections, and 46 people in 18 prosecutions involving the fishermen's association in the same year. The actual number of people suspected in vote-buying is considerably higher than those indicted.
The ministry said an important achievement at yesterday's meeting was that the National Police Administration and Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) agreed to recognize police officers' and investigators' achievements in cracking down on such vote-buying as part of their performance assessment. Currently, only in elections of government seats are police officers and investigators' anti-vote buying performances assessed. The MOJ hopes the change will encourage law enforcement officers to make better efforts in fighting vote-buying in these elections.
It was also decided at yesterday's meeting that police and investigators should gather intelligence on possible candidates and their social relationships and submit the information to district prosecutors for analysis by the end of October.
The Black Gold Investigation Center (
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