More than 460 vote-buying cases are being investigated by prosecutors, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.
Vice Minister of Justice Wang Tian-sheng (王添盛) told the legislative Judiciary Committee meeting that Taipei City Councilor Lin Ting-yung (林定勇) of the People First Party (PFP) was indicted on Tuesday on suspicion of vote-buying, after holding a party and treating supporters to free meals.
Lin is running for re-election as an independent candidate.
Meanwhile, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office released Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lee Wei-min (李偉民) on NT$200,000 bail.
Lee is suspected of vote-buying, after giving voters packets of tea.
Kaohsiung prosecutors and police also launched a crackdown on bribery in city councilor races.
The Kaohsiung District Court ordered the detention of four people in different cases yesterday. Seven others have been released on bail.
The 11 had been campaign staffers for six Kaohsiung city council candidates from across party lines, and were implicated in buying votes.
Prosecutors seized a number of gifts and millions of dollars in cash from the suspects. Voters who received gifts or cash from the suspects were also questioned by police and prosecutors.
Prosecutors withheld the names of candidates whose staffers had been arrested in an effort to avoid affecting the elections.
"Bribery has been more serious in Kaohsiung than in Taipei in this campaign," Investigation Bureau Director Yeh Sheng-mao (
Wang said prosecutors were investigating 53 bribery or vote-buying cases in the two mayoral campaigns, they were probing 411 cases in the councilor elections.
Wang said prosecutors would make every effort to crack down on vote-buying before the elections.
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