A borough warden in Keelung has been sentenced to four years in prison for electoral bribery after giving out 44 bags of jujubes worth NT$200 to constituents and other people in the run-up to last year’s local elections, the Keelung District Court said.
Siding Borough Warden Hsieh Wan-li (謝萬利) organized a day trip to a nature area outside Keelung with 40 people, of whom 20 were residents of the village and the others were their relatives or people with connections to the village, the court said.
The trip took place in the middle of the election season, when Hsieh was running for re-election.
Photo: Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
While on the tour bus, one of Hsieh’s assistants, surnamed Chang (張), complained over a microphone about not being able to campaign on the trip due to administrative neutrality laws, it said.
Despite the remarks, another of Hsieh’s assistants, surnamed Lu (呂), later handed out 44 bags of jujubes to the passengers, which he said Hsieh had purchased with his own money, the court said.
After the jujubes were distributed, Chang praised Hsieh over the microphone for “taking such good care of his constituents,” while he and Hsieh made sure everyone on the bus received a bag of the dried red dates, the court said.
In court, Hsieh denied that he had intentionally bribed voters, saying that he had simply noticed the jujubes on sale for NT$75 per bag and bought them for the group as snacks.
However, the court found that the jujubes had cost NT$200 per bag.
“The gifts contravened norms of what is appropriate” and could be seen as an attempt to win over or create a sense of indebtedness among the recipients, thus influencing their voting behavior, it said.
The court said it found the defendants guilty of delivering bribes under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
It sentenced Hsieh to four years in prison, while Chang and Lu each received sentences of one year and six months, suspended for four years.
The verdict can be appealed.
Based on guidance issued by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in 2001, items given as gifts during political campaigns must have a value of less than NT$30 each, above which they risk being considered electoral bribes.
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