With only 17 days to Taiwan’s local government elections, police have conducted a series of crackdowns to curb vote buying, violence, and illegal foreign campaign contributions, the Ministry of Justice said Wednesday.
According to the ministry, in order to block offshore funds from being used to intervene the Nov. 26 elections, authorities seized and froze NT$558 million (US$17.53 million) in suspicious assets following raids on underground banks from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15.
The ministry said it had uncovered 112 cases of unlawful transactions during the crackdowns, with 25 people detained on suspicion of violating related laws, including the Banking Act.
Meanwhile, in a written report on voting-buying irregularities submitted to the Legislature, the ministry said authorities had detained 164 people and seized 219 illegal firearms in raids on 22 locations between January and October.
Efforts to ensure the integrity of the upcoming elections have also led to arrests in relation to vote buying and illegal betting rings.
On Wednesday, authorities in Taitung County detained a man for allegedly brokering the buying and selling of votes in a local township election.
Prosecutors said they had questioned 16 others, including an election candidate, over buying and selling votes for NT$1,000 to NT$2,000 each.
Also on Wednesday morning, a township election candidate in Zhudong, Hsinchu County was arrested and charged with buying votes for NT$2,000 each the previous day.
Local prosecutors said the candidate was currently being held incommunicado with permission of the court.
Wednesday’s arrests come following a police raid on a suspected vote-buying operation involving councilor, township, and village chief elections in Yunlin County on Monday.
According to the Yunlin County Prosecutor’s Office, police seized over NT$220,000 in cash and questioned 22 voters and four alleged brokers.
Prosecutors said they had detained one of the suspected brokers pending further investigation.
Meanwhile, the ministry said that the National Police Agency had seized NT$92.17 million in cash and arrested 4,809 people in crackdowns on illegal election betting between January and October.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel