A “Maginot line” of poll monitors would be set up to defend against election interference, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.
People are invited to volunteer as monitors on Nov. 26 to watch the voting process in the local elections “like a hawk,” KMT Organizational Development Committee member Huang Yuan-liang (黃原亮) told a news conference in Taipei.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a record of underhanded tactics to secure wins, Huang said, adding that in his 30 years of stumping for elections, he had never seen anything like the Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英) incident of 2006.
Photo: Tsung Chang-chin, Taipei Times
The incident refers to when the campaign office of now-Control Yuan President Chen Chu (陳菊), who at the time was the DPP’s candidate for Kaohsiung mayor, convened a news conference the night before that year’s local elections showing footage of two men handing NT$500 notes to people getting off a bus that had just returned from a rally for then-KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying.
Chen’s office accused Huang Chun-ying of vote-buying.
The KMT candidate, who led Chen in the polls, lost the election by 1,014 votes.
Huang Yuan-liang said that the KMT would never do such a thing and it is often criticized for being honest.
In the run-up to this year’s vote, the KMT asked for 35,000 volunteers to be poll station monitors, he said, adding that it was surprised to receive 52,221 applications.
The party would provide applicants with tips on what to look for, such as making sure that ballot boxes are empty and do not have hidden compartments before they are sealed prior to voting, he said.
The KMT plans to have at least two monitors per station, with four at larger locations, he said.
The monitors should also look for abnormalities, such as people arriving in chartered buses, he added.
The KMT is also asking that the Central Election Commission clarify whether the referendum to lower the voting age to 18 would allow on-site promotion outside polling stations as has been the case with other referendums, he said, adding that if not, candidates expressing support for the proposal would be contravening the law.
The KMT expects that there would be a “significant incident” on voting day, which is most likely to occur during ballot counting, Huang Yuan-liang said.
KMT monitors would enter the counting locations and the person in charge must inform them how many ballots were distributed, he said, adding that all monitors must obtain a copy of the ballot count and send a photograph of it to the KMT.
The KMT is running its own simulation for ballots and would cross-reference the results with the commission, Huang Yuan-liang said, adding that if the results differ by too much, the party would consider legal action against the commission for vote tampering.
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