Print

Mail

wiki links

Campaign Special ( Results ) - Taichung prosecutors indict Chen vote captain

Taichung prosecutors yesterday indicted one of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) vote captains.

The indictment was the first indictment for vote-buying connected with the presidential election.

According to Taichung Prosecutor Tsai Chung-yung's (蔡仲雍) indictment, Chen Mei-hsiu (陳美秀), a 50-year-old vote captain connected to Chen Shui-bian's campaign, allegedly bought six boxes of soap for NT$95 each. She gave them away to voters in the hope that they would vote for Chen Shui-bian.

Tsai said that when police arrived at Chen Mei-hsiu's home on March 5 they discovered more evidence -- another box of soap that Chen Mei-hsiu was planning to give away.

Tsai suggested an 18-month sentence for Chen Mei-hsiu, but he also suggested to temporarily suspend the sentence for five years due to her cooperative attitude during the investigation.

According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, if Chen Mei-hsiu does not break the law again within the next five years, the bribery charge against her would be dropped.

"She does not have any previous convictions and regretted what she did," Tsai said.

According to Tsai, Chen Mei-hsiu said that she simply wanted to look for more supporters for Chen Shui-bian. She did not know that she would be regarded as a vote-buyer by giving away soap she bought with her own money.

According to State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發), the country's 1,650 prosecutors received a total of 2,600 alleged bribery reports. At least 2,060 of them were confirmed as bribery cases. Of them, Chen Mei-hsiu's case was the only case in which an indictment had been issued.

Prosecutors' investigation showed that the loaning of photo identification cards was the latest bribery trick used by vote captains.

"A valid photo-identification card is the first thing you need to carry with you if you want to vote," Lu said. "These vote captains who tried to bribe would pay the identification-card holders and then temporarily confiscate the identification cards until the end of the election so that the holders would not be able to vote," Lu said.

Lu said that nobody had been indicted for loaning photo-identification cards, but added he was unable to give more information on prosecutors' latest investigations due to a gag order.

After Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) lost to Chen Shui-bian last night, the National Police Administration immediately launched security measures to maintain public order. The administration sent nearly 20,000 police officers from its first, fourth and fifth Peace Preservation Corps to stand by for potential riots. As of press time yesterday, no incidents had been reported.
This story has been viewed 3324 times.