The Minister of Justice Should Not Campaign or Rally for Presidential Candidates

Tonight (the 23rd), the Judicial Reform Foundation (hereinafter JRF) issued the following statement regarding Minister of Justice Ch'en Ting-nan's announcement that he will participate in next year's presidential election campaign to assist and rally for President Ch'en Shui-bian:

The JRF considers it highly inappropriate for Minister of Justice Ch'en Ting-nan to announce today at the press conference for the establishment of the Ministry of Justice's "Vote-Buying Investigation and Supervision Task Force" that he will campaign and rally for President Ch'en during the presidential election.

The JRF stated that although current laws in our country do not explicitly prohibit the Minister of Justice from participating in campaign activities, given that the general public still largely cannot distinguish between the powers and duties of the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor-General—or even if they can, they recognize that the Minister of Justice's influence over the prosecutorial system cannot be underestimated—if the Minister of Justice fails to exercise restraint and rashly steps in to campaign for a specific candidate, it will inevitably harm the image of judicial independence and prosecutorial neutrality. The potential negative effects of such actions deserve careful consideration by Minister Ch'en.

Furthermore, investigating vote-buying is a paramount task in every election, and the public expects nothing less than the Ministry of Justice's full devotion to supervising vote-buying investigations. Under these circumstances, if Minister Ch'en were to divide his attention to campaign and rally for others, it would not only easily invite criticisms of "not focusing on one's primary duty," but also create the appearance of a conflict of roles and confusion, raising suspicions of "players acting as referees."

Moreover, during the era when Mr. Chang Chün-hsiung served as Premier, the Democratic Progressive Party, out of considerations to safeguard judicial independence, explicitly stipulated that the Minister of Justice did not need to bear the responsibility of campaigning for legislative candidates. The JRF believes that "when doing the right thing, why change it?!" The ruling party should not apply double standards in legislative or presidential elections, and even less should it set a bad precedent by allowing the Minister of Justice to campaign and rally for presidential candidates!