Prosecutors probe 'ghost' voters on offshore islands

They have copied all names on the roster of eligible voters with focus on 3,215 people who do not reside on the island but had their household registrations with other families, hotels, taxi firms, and even vacated or abandoned houses.

There are also more than 400 such “ghost” voters in the offshore Penghu County under probe as some non-resident voters had cast their ballots in support of specific candidates.

Aside from paying off voters, arranging “ghost” voters months ahead of election dates has long been one of the common frauds by Taiwan candidates in the Western-style democratic elections.

Several candidates were still able to win elections Saturday even after they themselves or campaign aides were detained for alleged vote-buying.

The Ministry of Justice reported yesterday that 198 suspects were detained on charges of buying votes at the conclusion of the Dec. 5 elections for mayors and county chiefs, county councilors and township chiefs.

Statistics released by the ministry indicated that in recent weeks, judicial authorities around the island received 4,380 reports of suspected vote-buying. While 2,413 cases were accepted and investigated, only 56 suspects have been indicted to date following in-depth probes.

Judging that cash has been the most effective incentive in luring voters, judicial authorities concentrated their efforts during these elections on trying to seize the large sums distributed to brokers to buy votes.

As of the eve of election day, prosecutors offices around the country had seized over NT$12 million, of which nearly 40 percent was attributed to candidates for the county council in Miaoli County in central Taiwan.

In May 2009, the MOJ announced revised guidelines for vote-buying investigations and the performance evaluation of prosecutors' offices in line with President Ma Ying-jeou's policies of pushing reforms.

The guidelines required vote-buying investigations to be resolved within nine months after an election and district prosecutors to initiate legal proceedings against those found buying their way into public office.

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