A week before voters in the five special municipalities hit poll stations on Saturday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has created “ghostbuster squads” equipped with video and voice recorders at their campaign headquarters to bust vote-buying.
The DPP ghostbuster squads consist of campaign volunteers equipped with voice and video recorders who can get to work immediately after receiving information about vote buying, DPP spokesman Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
Voters will select mayors, city councilors and borough chiefs in Sinbei City (the upgraded Taipei County); Greater Taichung, created after a merger of Taichung City and county; Greater Tainan, created after a merger of Tainan City and county; and Greater Kaohsiung, created after Kaohsiung City and county are merged.
After collecting sufficient evidence, the cases will be reported to law enforcement agencies for further investigation. Once people involved in vote-buying are prosecuted, members of the ghostbuster squads or those who gave tips would receive cash awards from DPP campaign headquarters, he said.
Lin said anyone who knows of vote buying could notify the party via its anti-vote-buying hotline.
He also called on law enforcement agencies to redouble their efforts to uncover vote-buying, as very few cases have been investigated despite the practice remaining popular.
Former Southern Taiwan Society chairman Cheng Cheng-yu (鄭正煜) said vote-buying was a very serious problem in southern Taiwan, claiming that a voter could receive NT$1,000 from city councilor candidates and between NT$500 and NT$1,000 from borough chief candidates in Kaohsiung.
Cheng said he feared vote buying would alter the results of the mayoral election in Kaohsiung.
In addition to attempts to “buy” individual voters, Cheng said he had heard that foot soldiers for candidates received NT$500,000 (US$16,500) to NT$1 million this year, a sharp increase from the NT$200,000 to NT$500,000 distributed to foot soldiers in the Kaohsiung mayoral and city councilor election four years ago.
Lin said only when law enforcement and the judiciary put in more efforts into catching vote-buyers could the special municipalities elections be fair, just and clean.
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