The Control Yuan yesterday released its review of the political donations received by mayoral candidates in the six special municipalities in the elections in November last year, and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) received the most donations — NT$139.8 million (US$4.52 million), beating his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Sean Lien (連勝文) by NT$30 million.
The Control Yuan report showed that independent Ko received more than NT$115 million from members of the public, NT$14 million from anonymous donors and NT$8.6 million from private companies.
Lien received about NT$112 million in donations, of which NT$58.8 million came from the private sector, NT$25 million from political parties and NT$27.9 million from the public, the report showed.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
According to accounts submitted by his campaign office, Ko spent most of his money on advertising, about NT$64.9 million, followed by NT$33.3 million in salary payments to campaign staff.
The physician-turned-politician returned NT$350,000 to donors and ran a deficit of about NT$2.5 million, the report showed.
Lien also spent most of his donations on advertising, almost NT$104 million, paid his staff about NT$17.49 million and ran a deficit of about NT$31.7 million, the report showed.
Ko and Lien declared overall campaign spending of about NT$140 million, the statistics showed.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) asked Ko for his thoughts about Lien’s reported campaign figures during yesterday’s meeting of the Taipei City Council.
Ko burst into laughter and said “impossible.”
Data showing Lien spending the same amount of money he did was “against common sense,” Ko said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) — who won the election — and then-Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), a KMT member, both attracted more donations than Lien, NT$127 million and NT$126 million respectively, the report showed.
Figures from the Control Yuan report showed that of all the candidates for the six mayorships, only Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP recorded a surplus in his campaign finances.
Lai raised NT$20 million, but only spent NT$9.1 million.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the DPP ran the biggest deficit, NT$36.07 million, according to the Control Yuan report.
Cheng’s opponent, John Wu (吳志揚) of the KMT, received donations totaling NT$64.7 million and spent NT$64.9 million, the report showed.
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