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A Japanese professor and lawyer said Monday they have together submitted a letter of complaint against Hyogo Gov Motohiko Saito and the head of a public relations company, alleging a violation of election law during the gubernatorial race.
Hiroshi Kamiwaki, professor at Kobe Gakuin University, and lawyer Nobuo Gohara said Saito paid the manager of PR agency Merchu Inc for services in the lead-up to the Nov 17 race. Saito was reelected despite earlier losing the position after abuse of power allegations surfaced.
Kamiwaki and Gohara accused Saito and the head of the firm of engaging in bribery. The Public Offices Election Law prohibits offering money, goods, property benefits or positions to voters or those participating in election activities.
Saito reclaimed his position as governor of the western Japan prefecture but has come under renewed scrutiny following the company's disclosure in a blog post on Nov. 20 that it was in charge of public relations operations across his campaign.
The blog post by the manager of the Hyogo-based PR agency has fueled speculation that Saito paid the firm, which could constitute a vote-buying offense. Saito has insisted he paid the company to produce posters and to perform other activities permitted under the law.
However, Kamiwaki said during an online press conference, "There is no doubt that the payment was made for the reelection campaign and constitutes a violation of the election law."
© KYODO
4 Comments
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HopeSpringsEternal
Crazy, just because a candidate effectively used social media and the Internat and largely bypassed traditional media does not equate to a crime.
The votes in a free and fair election were legal, Gov. Saito won based on merit of his messaging!
garypen
Dude's got the crazy eyes. Plus, by so many accounts, too many to ignore, he's just a grade A d-wad.
I hope these allegations can be proven, and he finally gets what he deserves.
virusrex
But if the candidate paid someone participating in election activities that would be a crime, the blog post would appear to prove this happened, and specially suspicious is that the post was later edited to pretend this was never the case.
Even if that is the case this would not exculpate him from bribery as per election law, which is why the complaint was filed.
Aoi Azuuri
This election is in unprecedented chaos.
One candidate who causes stirs whenever election to increase views of own accounts and make money, declared to assist Ex-governor this time, has repeated evidence-less defamations from election period through street speech or social media to discredit whistleblower cornered to suicide, Besides, he now begins even leaking personal information of whistleblower from his accounts.
Also, he even harassed and intimidated prefectural assembly member who inquired violation of governor despite during suspended sentence.
This another accomplice of re-elected governor is also pointed plural illegal acts.