Taiwan conducts raids in crackdown on alleged vote-buying with Chinese funds

On the suspicion that they were purchasing votes for China in Saturday's island-wide election, Taiwanese authorities conducted searches and interrogated a number of individuals. According to a report from Taiwan's semi-official Central News Agency, police officials used warrants obtained under the Anti-Infiltration Act, which was approved in late 2019 and prohibits "foreign hostile forces" from meddling in elections, to search four sites and jail three people, as reported by Bloomberg.

As per Central News Agency(CNA), which gets backingfrom the Taiwanese government, prosecutors claimed that evidence recovered during a raid earlier this month connected to the same organisation showed that cash from China was being channelled to candidates.

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The suspects' names and the names of the candidates who were involved were withheld by CNA. A request for comment made by Bloomberg was not answered by the Taiwan Affairs Office, the government department responsible for managing relations with the democratically ruled island.

In a contest that the Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party hope would give them an early advantage for the next presidential election in 2024, Taiwan voters go to the polls on Saturday to choose mayors and county leaders.

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