Efforts by prosecutors and police to clamp down on vote-buying have led to assets totaling NT$1.3 billion (US$41.7 million) being frozen, Ministry of Justice officials said yesterday.
Prosecutors as of Wednesday had handled 2,400 vote-buying cases ahead of the local elections on Saturday next week, the officials told a Cabinet meeting in Taipei, adding that 3,882 people had been questioned in connection with the cases.
Additionally, 88 election-related cases not involving vote-buying had been investigated, they said.
The frozen assets include about NT$200 million in cryptocurrencies, they said.
Police last month conducted two major operations against suspected vote-buying, as well as five operations against organized crime rings, with 1,839 suspected gang members being questioned, they said.
Prosecutors in Hsinchu County yesterday indicted 11 people, including a person surnamed Fan (范) who is running for public office in Hukou Township (湖口), the officials said, adding that four other cases of suspected buying of votes were also investigated in the county.
Prosecutors and police last month searched residences and offices in connection with the Fan case, the officials said.
Fan and 10 staffers on his campaign allegedly handed out NT$1,000 to voters in the township in exchange for their votes, they said.
Material seized last month along with witness testimonies led to the 11 people being charged with breaching the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Hsinchu County Chief Prosecutor Chang Chieh-chin (張介欽) said.
Prosecutors also questioned 32 Hukou residents who had allegedly accepted the money from Fan’s campaign, Chang said, adding that they cooperated with the probe and relinquished the money, so no charges were brought against them.
A judicial task force formed in the county in August has questioned 330 people who are suspected of being involved in election-related incidents, mostly vote-buying, and has searched 47 locations and seized NT$1.72 million in cash, Chang said.
Prosecutors in Chiayi County investigated three vote-buying cases, with three suspects being released after posting bail yesterday.
A suspect surnamed Lu (呂) is allegedly a vote-broker working for a city councilor candidate, for whom he allegedly handed out NT$1,000 bills to voters in exchange for their votes, prosecutors said.
Separately, a man surnamed Hou (侯) allegedly handed out NT$4,000 to people in Chiayi’s Puzi City (朴子) to buy votes for two candidates, including one running for borough warden, while a person surnamed Chen (陳) in Shueishang Township (水上) allegedly handed out NT$500 to residents in exchange for votes, prosecutors said.
The three suspects in the Chiayi cases posted bail of NT$50,000, NT$100,000 and NT$30,000 respectively, after being charged with vote buying.
Meanwhile, a candidate for borough warden in Taoyuan’s Bade District (八德) posted NT$200,000 bail after he was charged with election-related offenses. The candidate allegedly handed out grocery items and other gifts to residents in exchange for votes.
Separately, Lin Chin-chung (林金忠), director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Yunlin County chapter, asked prosecutors to investigate after 400 banners had been ripped down or destroyed one day after they were put up by the campaigns of DPP candidates in the county.
Filing a judicial complaint, Lin said he and other party officials inspected the newly put up banners in four townships and found that none of them were still intact.
“We demand that police protect campaign banners and find those who are responsible for this crime. Election should be fair and open,” Lin said. “We condemn political opponents acting like rats, coming out secretly at night to do their criminal deeds.”
Chinese-language media earlier this week reported that Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had objected to the DPP banners, citing one as saying: “Voting for Chang Li-shan equals supporting [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平).”
Another banner Chang objected to was one allegedly saying that Chang’s family had used her position to have family members vaccinated against COVID-19 when there was a shortage of vaccines in Taiwan.
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