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Ministry takes stand on bribery

Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan, State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa, National Police Administration Director General Chang Si-liang, Investigation Bureau Director Yeh Sheng-mao, and Prosecutor-General Wu Kuo-i, left to right, yesterday reaffirm their determination to crack down on vote-buying. PHOTO: YEH CHIH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

Whoever accepts free-trip offers from election candidates will be regarded as being involved in bribery, State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發) said yesterday.

"We want to remind the public not to be lured into this trap and that free-trip offers will be regarded as bribery," Lu said.

"We will not tolerate any vote-buying and suspects will be prosecuted once we discover sufficient evidence to prove them guilty," he said.

Lu made his announcement during a press conference yesterday morning. At the press conference, the Ministry of Justice made public its first TV commercial regarding the upcoming presidential election, which delivers the same message -- free trip offers from candidates will be regarded as bribery.

Lu also said that prosecutors have discovered that local vote captains have been treating voters with free trips or gifts to get their support for certain candidates in return.

While law enforcement officers are investigating these alleged vote-buying cases, however, Lu did not say whether the vote captains belong to the pan-blue camp or the green camp.

In the meantime, Lu gave the assurance that law enforcement officers have yet to discover anybody trying to buy votes with cash.

"We believe that there will be more and more potential vote-buying cases as election day approaches. However, we also want to urge the public not to be lured into any traps and do something they might regret," Lu said.

Ministry officials said that they have prepared three different anti-vote-buying TV commercials which will be broadcast nationwide before election day. All of these commercials will be screened in Mandarin, Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Hakka.

Regarding the President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) support group organizing the "million people hand-in-hand to protect Taiwan" activity on Feb. 28, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) said that the event will not constitute bribery, even if the conveners sponsor the traveling costs of the participants.

"The activity will not be a campaign activity so it has nothing to do with the election. Since it has nothing to do with the election, it has nothing to do with vote-buying, either," Chen Ding-nan said when he was approached by reporters at the press conference.

"Many people do not know how to define bribery. But our TV commercials will help the public to stay away from vote-buying," said Lin Ling-yu (林玲玉), the director of the ministry's Protection Department.

Tsai Pi-yu (蔡碧玉), the director of the ministry's Prosecutorial Affairs Department, said that 800 prosecutors, 2,000 agents from the Bureau of Investigation and nearly 80,000 police officers have joined the anti-vote-buying crackdown before the presidential election.

"For the past three years, we have given away rewards of more than NT$100 million to those who provide useful tips which resulted in the arrest of vote-buyers," Tsai said.

The ministry also announced a toll-free phone number for reporting potential bribery cases. The number is 0800-024-099.
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