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Police prepare to face ferocious legislative race

Police will activate their mechanism against election-related violence and bribery six months ahead of the year-end legislative elections as the races are expected to be far more intense than those held in the past, a senior official said yesterday.

The official said that National Police Agency Director-General Hou You-yi (侯友宜) had called a meeting of criminal investigation bureau chiefs from cities and counties around the country last Friday to brief them on the government's efforts to stamp out election-related bribery and violence ahead of the elections.

Hou told the meeting that the top priority in the crime-fighting campaign would be cracking down on vote-buying and election-related violence, the official said.

As the elections will be the first held under the new "single-member constituency, two-vote" electoral system and as the number of seats in the legislature has been halved to 113, Hou said the competition was likely to be especially fierce.

This was why the mechanism to prevent election-related bribery and violence should be activated earlier than usual, he said.

To enhance efficiency, Hou said, a system of "heavy rewards, heavy punishment" would be put in place to encourage police officers to actively investigate suspected vote-buying charges.

While financial rewards for efforts leading to convictions in vote-buying cases would be substantially increased, Hou added, penalties for police units that fail to uncover major election-related bribery cases would be harsher than before, with the heads of staff or police bureau chiefs to be reprimanded, demoted or transferred to other positions or offices.

To prevent the inflow of foreign funds for use in vote-buying, Hou said, he and Criminal Investigation Bureau Director Huang Mao-sui (黃茂穗) paid a visit to State Public Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) earlier this month to seek greater access for local police officers to information and data collected by the money-laundering prevention center under the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation.

Hou added that he had ordered a crackdown on illegal firearms following the shooting death of Taipei County Councilor Wu Shan-jeou (吳善九) in his service office in broad daylight last Wednesday.

Local police personnel should also step up intelligence gathering to prevent violent interference in the legislative elections, Hou said, adding that "we absolutely cannot allow a single shooting of a legislative candidate to occur."

Huang meanwhile encouraged police officers to resist pressure from local political factions in probing suspected vote-buying cases.

In addition to election bribery tactics such as handing out cash to voters or organizing hiking activities, National Police Agency officials said that they would be on the lookout for gambling games used to win voters' support.
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