Arrests for campaign funding irregularities

LDP Dietmember Masanori Arai is being questioned about suspected illegal use of funds during the Nov. 2003 general election campaign. The allegations include the illegal dispersal of funds to people putting up posters around the district.

"The police arrested Sunagawa on Dec. 17 for allegedly giving a total of 1.55 million yen to 15 people in late October in return for their visiting households and calling for support for Arai or helping to distribute his posters."
LDP's Arai in election vote-buying probe. 28 Dec, 2003. Japan Times.

「新井議員きょうにも逮捕」朝日新聞朝刊 2003年12月29日、1ページ。

新井議員を聴取、逮捕へ　衆院選で買収容疑 . asahi.com, 2003.12.29.

Update: LDP's Arai admits role in buying Nov. 9 votes. 4 January 2004, Japan Times.

「買収目的で金を渡した」新井衆院議員、容疑大筋認める. asahi.com, 6 January 2004.

Posters in Renaissance Italy

This does not concern election posters, but in 15th century Florence lifelike portraits of political enemies (such as the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy against the Medici clan in 1478) were painted onto the exteriors of public buildings.

"In Florence... bankrupts and traitors were depicted in large format on the facades of buildings, sometimes on the palace of the Lord Priors, but most often on the Bargello, the fortress of the chief police magistrate. To underline identities, names were carefully inscribed beside or under images. In the case of traitors, images were also accompanied by scurrilous lines of verse; and any such portrait was likely to last for many years."

Lauro Martines, April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Cape, 2003. ISBN 0224061674. pp. 134-135.