Amid reports of rampant vote-buying in the on-going DPP primary for the year-end legislative elections, both the Executive and Legislative Yuan are stepping up their efforts to amend the Public Officials Elections and Recall Law (
Currently, the law only punishes vote-buying practices in public elections. Vote-buying in party primaries is not a criminal offense.
"Political parties are now categorized as civic organizations, and electoral fraud within the parties is not subject to crackdowns by law-enforcement authorities. This situation has created a legal loophole," said DPP Legislator Chang Ching-fang (張清芳).
Chang and Trong Chai (
Under this proposal, people engaging in vote-buying in primaries would face imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to NT$6 million, while those who do so for profit, such as the go-between in a vote-buying deal, would face imprisonment of up to seven years and fines of up to NT$5 million.
The legislature's Home and Border Affairs Committee is set to review the proposal on Monday. Chang and Chai said they hope the legislature will pass the amendments soon, so that they will be applicable to the DPP primary ballot on April 1, as well as the subsequent primaries to be held by the KMT and the People First Party (PFP).
"Vote-buying is a source of chaos in Taiwan's society. The amendments are not targeted only at the DPP, because other parties are going to hold primaries too," Chai said.
Unlike the DPP, which has had a long history of holding primary elections, the KMT and PFP are holding primaries for the very first time this year.
Though holding a primary election is considered a democratic way for a party to decide its nominees for public elections, reports of vote-buying have marred the reputation of such elections.
Recent reports suggest that some candidates have spent over NT$100 million buying votes in the DPP primary, and that a single vote is worth at least NT$3,000.
According to Chang, the problem is complicated by the existence of so-called "figurehead party members," who are recruited by middlemen for the mere purpose of acting as go-betweens in vote-buying scams.
A middleman will usually approach candidates, offering them a certain number of votes at a certain price, Chang said.
In the case of the DPP primary, candidates for legislator-at-large seats, whose fate rests totally on the ballot of party members, are widely thought to be the most likely to resort to vote-buying to secure victory.
The seats for legislators-at-large are allocated to political parties based on the total share of their vote in the legislative elections, and each party has a list of candidates to fill these seats.
For candidates seeking nomination to run in geographic constituencies, their qualifications are decided mainly by opinion polls, which constitute a maximum of 70 percent of their total vote. The remaining 30 percent is decided by a ballot of party members.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior has also drafted a set of amendments to the Public Officials Elections and Recall Law that is to be submitted to the legislature soon.
Under the ministry's proposal, people convicted of vote-buying would be banned from becoming contestants in a party primary. People who buy votes in a party primary would face imprisonment of up to seven years and fines of up to NT$6 million and would also be disqualified from nomination even if they had already "won" the race.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS