Authorities have detained a man on suspicion of “fabricating” opinion polls with the intention of influencing the Jan. 13 presidential election, prosecutors said yesterday.
The Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office said it questioned four people on Friday for allegedly spreading fabricated presidential poll results through news media and social media.
Prosecutors said they detained former For Public Good Party deputy chairman Hsu Shao-tung (徐少東) on suspicion of contravening the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) based on evidence from bank transactions.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Hsu’s son was released without needing to post bail. Hsu’s alleged co-conspirators, the head of the Kaohsiung Pastel Painting Association, surnamed Wang (王), and the director-general of the Railway Matsu Charity Association, surnamed Lee (李), paid bail of NT$200,000 and NT$100,000 respectively.
Their Chinese contact allegedly wired funds into accounts under Hsu’s and Wang’s names, prosecutors said, adding that Wang was the primary contact.
Investigators found that, under the Chinese agent’s orders, Hsu falsified research results and polls on presidential candidates and forwarded the false information to contacts on Line, they said.
Wang also took out advertisements in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News and the United Daily News, as well as on news Web sites, including Match Portal, Pchome News, Owl News and Life News, to help promote certain candidates, prosecutors said.
The candidates and parties that the fabricated opinion polls favored were not identified.
Prosecutors said that Hsu was also a chief consultant of a “new residents” association, a community organization for newcomers to Taiwan.
The association was accused by prosecutors earlier this month of arranging free trips to China for dozens of people in a bid to “influence” the elections.
“They aimed to use Taiwan’s large new resident population to develop organizations that could be controlled by these hostile foreign powers ... to influence the election, thereby endangering national security,” prosecutors said.
Hsu’s detention was the second case this week involving someone being held incommunicado on suspicion of faking presidential election polls.
On Friday, a court ordered that a reporter be detained in Taichung on suspicion of publishing online eight fake public opinion polls on the presidential election at the instruction of Chinese officials.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said that reporter Lin Hsien-yuan (林獻元), who works for Finger Media, in October asked a self-proclaimed polling expert, Su Yuan-hwa (蘇雲華), to produce a series of false poll results at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party’s Fujian Provincial Committee showing that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential ticket was favored by Taiwanese.
The results, which were shared on other online media platforms, misled the public and were part of China’s attempt to interfere in Taiwan’s presidential election, prosecutors said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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