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TAIPEI - TAIWAN prosecutors are probing allegations of large-scale vote buying involving hundreds of thousands of dollars just days before parliamentary elections, an official said on Thursday.
More than 20 people confessed during questioning by investigators on Wednesday to involvement in the scam, said a spokesman for the Yunlin Prosecutor's Office in southern Taiwan.
'So far we have questioned 32 people and 24 of them have confessed to either buying votes or taking bribes to support a certain candidate,' said spokesman Chiang Te-lung.
A local district chief has admitted receiving NT$1.15 million (S$51,109) from a candidate and in return has handed out 700,000 dollars through brokers to buy votes for 500 dollars each, he said.
Prosecutors plan to question 200 more people before laying charges, Mr Chiang said, adding his office has been probing seven other cases in recent months.
Across the island, prosecutors were looking at 5,189 cases of alleged vote buying in the runup to Jan 12 elections, according to figures from the justice ministry.
Thirteen people have been indicted in two cases, but details of the others, including the amount of alleged money involved, are not known.
Offering bribes in exchange for votes carries a maximum five years in jail, while the maximum penalty for accepting the bribe is three years'.
A total of 423 candidates are vying for 113 seats in the elections, the first since Taiwan passed a bill in 2004 to halve the parliament and re-zone the constituencies.
Under the new system, voters will cast one ballot for a candidate and one for a political party, which will determine the number of non-constituency seats that parties will be allotted. -- AFP
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