Efforts to reduce bribery a success, minister declares

Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) yesterday called this year's anti-vote-buying crackdown a success and declared the Taipei and Kaohsiung elections clean.

Speaking to reporters after voting at Taipei's Chin-ou Girls' Senior High School, Chen said that the ministry did not suffer from manpower shortages similar to those that crippled election inspectors' work during the legislative election last year. He said, however, that these elections covered only Taipei and Kaohsiung City and were not nationwide.

"A few months ago, the word on the street was that that there would be more bribery in Kaohsiung this year. Our information does not match this assertion as far as I can see. ... I am glad to see such progress made by prosecutors, voters and candidates themselves because it seemed to me that everybody was expecting a clean election and was working very hard toward that end," Chen said.

According to the statistics from the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, prosecutors arrested 805 people, of which 12 have been indicted -- including two Kaohsiung City Councilor candidates -- and 11 detained. Excluding the candidates, all those arrested were vote captains.

In Taipei City, according to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office and the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office, no-one was arrested or indicted for bribery.

However, Taipei District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said that prosecutors carried out their duties right through election day.

During last year's nationwide legislative election, prosecutors arrested 3,509 suspects -- all of them vote captains -- for bribing voters. Police later indicted 106.

The Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選罷法) regulates that a candidate's registration will be automatically canceled if convicted. In addition, if the candidate is convicted after he wins the campaign, his status as a public official will be automatically voided.

Meanwhile, prosecutors reported that three voters, two in Kaohsiung and one in Taipei, were arrested after ripping up their ballot papers -- a criminal offense in Taiwan.

According to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, 21-year-old Lin Che-june (林哲濬) was referred to a psychiatrist after tearing up his voting slip. He was released yesterday and will not be charged.

Yang Chang-mei (楊常美), a 76-year-old Taipei voter who was arrested after tearing up her ballot, told prosecutors that she did it because she voted for the wrong candidate and wanted to correct it. Yang was released but prosecutors have not decided whether to charge her.

Han Chang-an (韓長安), an 84-year-old Kaohsiung voter, was also arrested by the police for ripping up his voting slip. He told the police that he had voted for the wrong person.

Kaohsiung prosecutors released him but have not decided whether to charge him.