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New campaign targets vote-buying

An anti-graft campaign launched for the end-of-year elections will focus on areas of high voter turnout in previous polls and also monitor the capital flows of participants in an attempt to crack down on the practice of vote-buying, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday.

MOJ officials made the remarks just as campaigning for the year-end "three-in-one" elections -- referring to the elections for city and county chiefs, councilors, and village and township chiefs -- is gearing up.

Last Tuesday marked the last day for any potential candidates wishing to run for city and county heads and councilors, as well as village and township heads, to register for the elections, which will be held on Dec. 3.

MOJ officials yesterday said that to prevent candidates linked to corrupt "black gold" politics from winning elections through vote-buying, the ministry has instructed law enforcement agencies nationwide to keep close tabs on areas where turnout rates are high, where votes overwhelmingly go to a single candidate and where candidates who have no special relationship to their constituencies are running.

CAPITAL FLOW

In order to crack down on candidates who are likely to buy votes, the ministry will keep track of the flow of their capital so they will be unable to use their money to buy votes.

The ministry said the anti-graft campaign has borne fruit over the past two months, noting that several aspirants who had originally wanted to register in the elections have bowed out, while other candidiates who had wanted to embark on "gift-giving" campaigns during the Mid-Autumn Festival to curry favor with voters had been scared away from doing so.

One such alleged case took place earlier this week when Pingtung County law enforcement authorities, with search warrant in hand, sent about 260 officers to search Pingtung County Commissioner independent candidate Soong Li-hua's (宋麗華) campaign offices looking for evidence of alleged bribery.

The agents found a number of electronic appliances, including refrigerators, microwave ovens, electric fans and bicycles.

Soong is suspected of involvement in bribing voters through a lottery scheme in which supporters received gifts.

After the raid, 77 people were interrogated by prosecutors, and some of them reportedly admitted accepting bribes from Soong.

In order to defend her reputation, Soong held a news conference the following day at her campaign office.

POLITICAL `PERSECUTION'

Soong claimed that the raid had amounted to a kind of "political persecution" because she was the "most promising candidate" for the post of Pingtung County commissioner.

Soong's husband, Tsai Hao (蔡豪), a Non-Partisan Solidarity Union lawmaker, then said that Soong would go to the Pingtung District Court to give an explanation to prosecutors immediately after the press conference.

When the press conference concluded however, Soong did not offer any explanation as promised.

Tsai was himself prosecuted for vote-buying and taking election-related kickbacks in December last year.
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