The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) latest piggy bank campaign has proven successful, perhaps just not exactly the way it planned.
The party has been giving out small piggy banks to its supporters, encouraging them to fill the banks and return them to the party as a form of small-scale fundraising.
However, DPP lawmakers’ offices said that party headquarters could not keep up with supporters’ demand for the banks, as many were being kept as souvenirs, so the party has had to produce a “souvenir version” that supporters can keep after turning in the original ones.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The “souvenir version” piggy banks, which were released yesterday, have DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) signature on them, DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) told a news conference in Taipei.
The DPP first used piggy banks as a fundraising strategy in 2011 as part of Tsai’s campaign for the 2012 presidential election, after three children had donated the contents of their piggy banks to her campaign.
Tsai last month told a visiting US congressional delegation that a total of 140,000 piggy banks were received, accounting for 87 percent of the funds she raised for that presidential run.
Cheng yesterday announced a series of events for this weekend to celebrate the party’s 28th anniversary, which falls on Sept. 28.
However, this year, Sept. 28 is also the final day of a three-day long weekend for the Mid-Autum Festival, which falls on Sept. 27, so the party has moved its celebrations ahead by one week.
“We will be holding our national congress at the public library in Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) on Saturday morning and will host an evening gala at Jhongjheng Park [中正公園] in the city’s Jhongli District [中壢],” Cheng said.
“A market featuring handmade and creative merchandise, as well as organic products grown in Taoyuan, will gather in the afternoon,” Cheng said.
The evening gala would feature a performance by the Paper Windmill Theatre (紙風車劇團) as well as several bands, Cheng said.
Asked if Tsai would announce her running mate before the national congress — as she did for the 2012 presidential election — Cheng said the DPP would respect Tsai’s arrangements, and therefore a vice presidential candidate would “not necessarily” be decided by then.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS