With 16 days to go until the election, the chairman of the Central Election Commission, You Yinglong, held a "Report to the People" press conference today to announce the election times for mayors, county and city chiefs, councilors and township citizen representatives. He also issued eight major reminders to government agencies, news media, polling agencies, political parties and candidates, and the public, not to violate the "Election and Strike Law" and other relevant regulations, and to jointly maintain a fair and just election environment.
You Yinglong pointed out that this year's local civil servant election will be held on November 28, 2015 (Saturday). The election committees of each municipality will announce the list of candidates for the municipal mayor election today (12th), and the campaign period for the municipal mayor election will officially begin tomorrow (13th).
He continued that the campaign periods for various elections are different, with 15 days for mayors (from November 13 to November 27); 10 days for municipal councilors, county and city councilors, county mayors, townships, mayors and indigenous district chiefs (from November 18 to November 27); and five days for township citizen representatives, indigenous district representatives and village chiefs (from November 23 to November 27). During the campaign period, campaign hours are from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
The Election Committee specifically issued eight reminders: 1. Government agencies are not allowed to engage in activities related to election propaganda; 2. Radio and television enterprises should adhere to the principles of fairness and impartiality when reporting on election-related issues and providing time slots for political parties and candidates to conduct election propaganda; 3. When newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the Internet or other media publish election advertisements, the publisher, funder and other relevant information should be stated or stated in the advertisement.
The Election Committee continued to point out that 4. Political parties and anyone who prints and distributes promotional materials for campaign activities with text or pictures must personally sign; 5. Political parties and anyone who hangs or erects slogans, billboards, flags, banners and other campaign advertising materials must be named; 6. Political parties and anyone are not allowed to engage in public campaigning or election-supporting activities before 7 a.m. or after 10 p.m. every day during the campaign period; they are not allowed to engage in campaigning or election-support activities on polling days.
The Central Election Commission added that 7. Regarding the release standards for election opinion polls, political parties and anyone who publishes opinion poll information about candidates or elections from the date of the election announcement to 10 days before the polling day should indicate the unit or host responsible for the survey, processing time, sampling method, matrix and sample number, funding source, error value and other information. From 0:00 on November 18, 2020 to the close of voting, no information related to election polls may be published, reported, disseminated, commented on or quoted. Please pay special attention to the relevant regulations.
Finally, regarding the relevant regulations on the broadcasting of deep fake voices and images of candidates on radio, television, and the Internet, the Election Committee warned that with the rapid development of AI technology in recent years, deep fake videos may be used by interested parties to produce and spread false information, thereby affecting the fairness of elections and the judgment of voters. The association has established a "deep fake video prevention task force" to establish a complete prevention mechanism from prevention propaganda, case reporting, forensic cooperation, content removal to legal punishment and other aspects. It has also established communication channels with prosecutors and police investigation agencies, Internet platform operators and private fact-checking organizations to strengthen horizontal cooperation.
The Election Committee stated that it has also cooperated with the Ministry of Digital Development and used the "Election AI Deep Fake Information Notification Network" established by the Ministry to assist candidates in immediately reporting suspected deep fake videos and making removal requests, so as to quickly initiate the follow-up processing mechanism. According to Article 110, Paragraph 5 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, those who fail to stop publication, restrict browsing, remove or delist relevant content will be fined not less than NT$200,000 but not more than NT$10 million, and ordered to make improvements within a time limit; those who fail to make improvements within the time limit may be punished on a case-by-case basis.
In addition to active prevention and immediate response, the CEC said that the association has also made the prevention of deepfake videos a focus of this election campaign. Through multiple media channels such as television, the Internet, and radio, it will strengthen publicity to the public to identify misinformation and false information, and encourage the use of third-party platforms such as the "Taiwan Fact Checking Center" for verification. The public is called upon to be more vigilant when faced with online videos and various information, conduct multi-party verification, and not forward unverified content to avoid fake videos and videos that may affect the integrity of the election, and to ensure that voters can exercise their right to vote with sufficient and correct information.
In addition, in order to prevent bribery or improper interests from intervening in elections and maintain the fairness and purity of elections, the Criminal Law and the Law on the Election and Recall of Public Officials have stipulated penalties for voting bribery and acceptance of bribery. The Central Election Commission warned that the "Examples of Criminal Cases of Obstruction of Elections" reviewed by the Ministry of Justice on October 19, 2011, listed behaviors that may or may not constitute crimes related to obstruction of elections. As for whether promotional materials introducing candidates, or promotional materials with a value of less than NT$30, constitute a crime of vote-buying, it should still be determined by the prosecutor based on the facts of the specific case and relevant evidence.
