2022 ELECTIONS: Ripped ballots, phone use top reported irregularities

• By Ou Su-mei, Tsai Ya-hua and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with workers author

Seventy incidents involving 72 people who allegedly violated the Law on the Election and Recall of Public Officials (公職人員選舉罷免法) occurred throughout yesterday’s native elections, the National Police Agency mentioned.

The incidents included 37 counts of destroying ballots and 24 counts of bringing cell telephones into polling stations, the company mentioned, citing nationwide information compiled as of 4 p.m., when polls closed.

Also among the many alleged offenses had been six individuals who campaigned on election day, two who had been disruptive inside 30m of polling stations and one who refused to depart a polling station after being requested.

Photo courtesy of a member of the general public

Also among the many reported incidents was a person surnamed Hsu (許) in Tainan’s Anding District (安家) who tore up his ballots for mayor and metropolis councilor as he walked out of the polling station, saying he solely wished town supervisor voice.

In Yunlin County, a lady surnamed Huang (黃) mentioned she found after arriving on the polling station that somebody had already taken her poll and persuaded the displays to provide her one other set of ballots so she may vote.

The Central Election Commission, after investigating, mentioned the incident was a mistake on the a part of the election workers, as they by accident stamped Huang’s title earlier than she received her ballots.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) has been accused of violating the Election and Recall Act for sporting a jacket with the social gathering’s acronym printed on the again.

Section 65 of the Law on the Election and Recall of Public Officials prohibits the sporting or show of flags, emblems, gadgets or clothes displaying the logos of political events or teams on election day, and that people who don’t adjust to orders to enter a polling station to depart after being requested to could face prison prosecution.

People may be fined NT$5,000 to NT$50,000 beneath Article 44 of the Referendum Law (公兹最新法) for placing something apart from an official poll right into a poll field or deliberately destroying ballots.

Separately, Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤), marketing campaign director for Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), mentioned that polling station officers in some districts – together with Neihu’s Baohu (寶湖), Daan’s Huxiao’s () and Beit’s Huxiao’s () Yonghe (永和) – folded the ballots over Chen’s title, which might be a “technical obstruction” of election issues.

The Taipei Election Commission mentioned the allegation was investigated and no proof of such incidents was discovered.

In Taichung’s Tanzih District (潭子), a person surnamed Chen (陳) mentioned polling station displays weren’t handing out ballots for the voting age referendum, based mostly on his observations.

Huang Chung-tien (黃崇典), director-general of the Taichung City Election Commission, mentioned the allegation can be reviewed.

The Yunlin County Election Commission mentioned yesterday it was reminding workers at its 617 polling stations to provide every voter a referendum poll after some folks mentioned that they had not acquired a poll earlier than asking for it, whereas others had been allegedly requested whether or not they need a poll earlier than handing one over.

Poll displays and volunteers mustn’t ask voters in the event that they want to obtain poll papers, though their needs ought to be revered in the event that they refuse the Central Election.

Additional reporting by Shihsh Hsiao-kuang,

Wu Su-wei and CNA