The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) of vote-buying via flight tickets and “walking fees,” urging prosecutors to investigate.
“A KMT supporters’ club in China said that, for Taiwanese voters in China who back the KMT in the nine-in-one elections, they would help buy round-trip flights to Taiwan that cost 4,000 yuan (US$653) for the discounted price of 1,400 yuan each,” DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said.
“It is a violation of the law set by the Ministry of Justice which prohibited anyone providing voters with transportation expenses from their location of residence to poll stations; are prosecutors trying to ignore it?” Huang said.
Huang, who is also a lawyer, added that, according to a ban imposed by the ministry in 2009, providing transportation or travel expenses to voters constitutes “vote-buying.”
In addition, Huang said the Chinese Production Party (CPP) paid NT$1,000 each to people who attended a pro-Lien rally that it organized last week.
According to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), a worker at the event surnamed Liu (劉) was seen handing out cash to participants who had signed up in advance.
Event host Lu Yuexiang (盧月香) said at the rally that, in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, she paid for Taiwanese residing in China to fly back to vote, as long as they voted for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Huang said.
“These clearly violate the ministry’s rule and the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants [公職人員選舉罷免法],” Huang said. “I hereby call on prosecutors to investigate.”
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