Judicial officials and law enforcement agencies were yesterday monitoring and cracking down on alleged election-related violations.
According to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, election-related crimes and campaign violations amounted to a total of 1,307 cases, with 2,245 people charged as of yesterday afternoon.
The latest figures showed an increase from Tuesday’s reports of 1,044 cases and 1,797 people charged.
Investigated cases relating to alleged vote-buying activities for presidential and legislative election campaigns came to 697 cases with 1,314 people charged, the office said yesterday afternoon.
There were 85 cases and 121 people charged over threatening physical violence to secure votes, while other election-related crimes, such as underground betting on election results, came to 525 cases with 810 people charged, the office said.
A total of 15 suspects were placed in detention and were being held incommunicado, while 22 suspects were held and later released on posting bail after questioning, the office said.
Most of the detained suspects came from investigations into reports of vote-buying in Chiayi County, it said.
A man surnamed Lin (林) was also taken in for questioning for allegedly paying cash to Chiayi County residents in exchange for their votes, the office said.
A local court approved the prosecutors’ request to detain Lin and hold him incommunicado yesterday morning, bringing the total number of suspects to 10 in Chiayi County, where an alleged NT$1,000 cash-per-vote scandal embroiled Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members and vote-brokers.
Chiayi’s Shueishang Township Council Chairman Wu Pei-yu (吳培裕) from the KMT admitted to giving NT$120,000 to Lin, NT$500,000 to a former village warden surnamed Wu (吳) and NT$50,000 to a village warden surnamed Hsieh (謝), police said.
Police officials in Kaohsiung yesterday said they also arrested members of an underground gambling enterprise that allegedly accepted wagers on the outcome of today’s presidential election.
Two suspects surnamed Wu (吳) and Liao (廖) were apprehended, police said.
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