Prosecutors are being overzealous in their pursuit of "ghost voters," or people who live in one district but are registered to vote in a-nother, a number of lawmakers said yesterday.
Since the Dec. 1 elections,
investigators looking into voter fraud have focused their efforts on residents of Taiwan's outlying island voting districts.
Many voters have their household registrations on islands such as Matsu or Kinmen, but spend a majority of their time on Taiwan proper.
PFP lawmaker Chiu Chuang-liang (
"We praise the work of prosecutors and police officers in their crackdown on bribery during the elections," Chiu said. "But if they overdo it, that will become bothersome to people."
Chiu cited the example of one voter who has been summonsed by police in both Taipei and Mastu to explain his two addresses.
"He received two summonses for the same reason, same date, same time but different prosecutors and reporting locations," Chiu said.
"How can a person show up at two different locations at the same time? I don't understand why this kind of ridiculous summons would be issued by prosecutors at all," he said.
Chiu said the voter was a native Matsu resident who lives in Taiwan.
The voter had re-registered his household in Matsu to take the advantage of the "small three links," though he doesn't live there.
"Because of this, prosecutors thought he was a `ghost voter' in Matsu," Chiu said.
Officials from the Ministry of Justice were unable to comment on the matter.
"Prosecutors must have their reasons to summons these people," said David Horng (洪光火宣), head prosecutor at the ministry of justice.
"But due to regulations keeping investigations secret, I can't ask them why and interfere with their investigation." he said.
Sue Wang, (
"A person without any knowledge of the law may be scared when he doesn't understand what the summons is all about," Wang said.
"As a part of judicial reforms, prosecutors should encourage people to believe in justice, not fear it," he said.
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