The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is aiming to have the least expensive presidential election campaign, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday, after the party was reported to have achieved little success in fundraising with KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) on the ballot.
“For the upcoming general election, we would set a new record for the least amount of campaign funds spent. What we are counting on is favors and friendships from the people. Our campaign staff members at different localities hold rallies by themselves without spending funds from campaign headquarters,” Chu told reporters on the sideline of a campaign event for the party’s legislative candidate Chang Szu-kang (張斯綱) in Taipei.
The party is to hold 17 campaign rallies nationwide from until the election day, Chu said.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
“The KMT does not have many resources, and Hou’s campaign headquarters would not raise funds and depend mainly on small donations from independent voters and grassroots support,” he said.
Chu said that the general election this year is “a choice between war and peace.”
“The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] has ruled the country for almost eight years, during which the government has been plagued with scandals, corruption and injustice,” Chu said. “This is also a choice for honesty, fairness and justice. When Hou is elected, he would definitely resume the operation of the Special Investigation Division to address the injustice and build an honest government again.”
Chu also criticized Vice President and DPP presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德), saying that people should be concerned about Lai’s support for an independent Taiwan.
“No US government official or US think tank agrees with or supports Taiwan’s independence, and yet Lai is known for being the golden grandson of pro-independence activists and a pragmatic activist for Taiwan independence,” he said.
All articles published by US think tanks are about how a pro-Taiwan independence candidate would affect and harm the world situation. This is the question that people should seriously ponder,” Chu said.
Separately yesterday in response to media queries for comment regarding the KMT’s campaign fundraising, Taiwan’s People Party chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said he believed Chu for saying that KMT would spend the least amount of campaign funds compared with previous elections.
“They used to have more than NT$10 billion [US$317.7 million] at their disposal, but now they can only make do with just a few billion [new Taiwan dollars]. Of course, the campaign funds they can use are much less,” Ko said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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