Officers from the National Security Bureau (NSB) will present security reports to three pairings of presidential and vice presidential candidates before they officially register to their candidacies next week, the bureau said yesterday.
In a press statement, the bureau said that according to Central Election Council (CEC) regulations, presidential and vice presidential candidates must register to run in the Jan. 14 election between Nov. 21 and Nov. 25. The bureau’s special protective task force would therefore provide candidates with a protective detail from the moment they completed the registration process until midnight on Jan 14.
The bureau said it planned to provide security reports to the candidates before they register next week and has already started to negotiate with candidates about where and when the presentations would take place.
As for People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), the bureau said that as soon as Soong and his running mate are declared candidates by the CEC it would contact Soong’s campaign team and present them with a security report
The special task force would lay out its security plans to the candidates and ask them to cooperate with all security protocols, the bureau said.
Special agents would be responsible for the safety of the candidates, but they would not engage in any political activities, such as collecting election-related intelligence, the bureau said.
Officials said that candidates and their running mates would be asked to not ride in the same vehicle when campaigning together. In addition fireworks are only to be allowed before the candidates arrive or after they leave.
Campaign teams will be required to provide the special task force with a comprehensive list of the names of guests and campaign staff, to facilitate enhanced security while campaigning, the bureau said.
The bureau has formed a 135-member security task force, which will be responsible for the safety of all presidential candidates and their running mates throughout the election campaign.
The task force, which will receive assistance from 30 specially-trained police officers, is to be divided into three teams.
Each team is to be assigned 12 vehicles, including a bulletproof parade car, a bulletproof sedan and a van.
In light of previous shootings on the eve of important elections and suggestions that such incidents exert an undue influence on how people vote, lawmakers have asked the bureau to step up security
Those incidents include an assassination attempt on then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004, and the shooting of former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) son, Sean Lien (連勝文), before the special municipality elections on Nov. 27 last year while attending a rally in then-Taipei County, a shooting that is now believed to have been unrelated to the election.
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