The government ratcheted up its campaign against "black gold" over the last week, holding three outdoor rally to urge candidates not to buy votes and voters not to sell votes.
"We are here to show our determination to drive all forms of vote-buying out of our elections," said Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
The Ministry of Justice and the district prosecutor's offices of Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung organized the events, held in Tai-chung on Nov. 17, in Kaohsiung on Nov. 19 and yesterday in Taipei.
"Today's event is the last one" said Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南).
"There are only 10 days to go before election day. We sincerely hope that all the candidates this year will run clean campaigns rather than indulge in vote-buying," Chen said.
"As for those who are trying to buy votes, I hope that today's event will wake them up if they are dreaming of getting elected through bribery. Our investigators will not let them get away with it."
Chang said that it is necessary to keep on stamping out bribery during the election. He added that the government cannot perform the task without the people's help.
"The government has limited manpower and resources, but we can mobilize the public to work on this project with us," Chang said.
"In the past," the premier continued. "Many voters thought it was okay to accept a bribe for a vote. This kind of attitude must be changed because it is not right. The government will never be able to eradicate the practice if voters still think it's okay to sell votes."
According to the Ministry of Justice's statistics, 1,448 vote-buying cases were reported and 13 suspects had been indicted by press time.
Chang also indicated that the government will continue the anti-vote-buying project after this election to ensure that all future elections will be clean.
"Our anti-bribery action will never stop," he said.
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