For the sake of winning political power, sharing it among themselves and enjoying the benefits, the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the “white” Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) have not given up on their idea of forming a “blue-white” alliance to contest the “green” Democratic Progressive Party in January’s presidential election.
In addition to the obvious practical problem of each party having its own agenda, the ongoing negotiations involve a lesser-known legal obstacle, namely the question of horse trading and electoral bribery, as detailed in Article 84 of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
Article 84 stipulates that: “Anyone who makes a candidate or a person qualified for a candidate agree to abandon the campaign or to perform certain campaign activities by asking for expected promises or delivering bribes or other undue benefits to the aforesaid party shall be condemned to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years.”
It further states that: “Any candidate or any person qualified for a candidate who asks for expected promises or accepts bribes or other undue benefits and thereupon promises to abandon the campaign or perform certain campaign activities shall also be punished in accordance with the provision of the preceding paragraph.”
Furthermore, it says that: “Anyone planning to commit the crimes referred to in the preceding two paragraphs shall be condemned to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than one year.”
This provision, which has existed since Taiwan’s first direct presidential election in 1996, is a fairly strict prohibition on election bribery.
It might not be easy for the public to understand such a provision. Simply put, it means the following:
First, no person, including a presidential or vice presidential candidate who is currently engaged in electioneering activities, even if they are not yet registered as a candidate, is allowed to engage in horse trading with these contenders by offering them money or positions, such as asking them to switch to being a vice presidential or presidential candidate, or to withdraw from competing in the presidential and vice presidential election and instead be appointed to a position such as premier.
Second, if these teams of people qualified to stand as candidates ask or obtain the agreement of other candidates’ team members to become president or vice president or to give up their candidacy, with the offer of later giving them a position such as that of premier, this also constitutes election bribery by way of horse trading. Furthermore, preparing to engage in this kind of horse trading is also punishable by imprisonment of up to one year.
Some voters might wonder if such behavior is such a serious matter. This provision, severe as it is, was passed by the legislature at a time when the KMT held a majority of legislative seats.
Do not imagine that nobody is keeping an eye on secret negotiations, and then, if news of such negotiations or their result comes to light and prosecutors start to investigate the case, turn around and moan about political persecution.
Most politicians think that the first step is the hardest, and as long as they are elected, other legal obstacles should not be a problem. Taiwan is a democracy where the rule of law prevails and any legal dispute would be laid out in the light of day, so how could people be stuck in that old mentality? If, for the sake of huge interests and the power of being in government, they place a heavy bet like a gambler, would they be able to escape from the eyes of the law? Even if they do, could they escape from the fair judgement of the voters?
Chuang Sheng-rong is a lawyer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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