DPP sees full house at pricey fund-raiser

In spite of the slow economy, the ruling DPP's Mainstream Faction (主流聯盟) yesterday had a full house at its fund-raising dinner banquet.

Organizers of the banquet were surprised by the high turnout in light of Taiwan's current economic difficulties and the NT$50,000 per head donation required to attend the fund-raising event.

"I'm impressed by the full house, which shows [your] confidence in the DPP and the Mainstream Faction's candidates," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said as a guest of honor last night.

He added that he was confident that the DPP would win at least 12 seats in the mayoral and county commissioners' elections, as well as a landslide legislative victory.

"We've raised at least NT$60 million," the faction's treasurer Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) told reporters following the event.

He also said that total donations had yet to be calculated since some supporters made contributions in excess of NT$1 million.

More than 100 tables at 12 heads per table packed the fund-raising banquet last night.

Cheng attributed yesterday's full house to supporters' counter-reaction to media predictions that "few would attend [the faction's] fund-raising banquet" and that "party legislators complained of less enthusiastic support this year."

The faction had previously been accused of exerting its influence by forcing non-DPP government officials to canvass for donations.

Yesterday Cheng flatly denied such accusations, saying that "those non-DPP government officials who attended the fundraiser haven't paid a cent."

However, few non-DPP government officials attended last night's event.

Only Vice Premier Lai In-jaw (賴英照) made an appearance midway through the event.

Among the notable DPP officials who took turns rallying supporters at the event were Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), Minister of Transportation and Communication Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) and DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

Yesterday was the first time in the runup to the December elections that Lu has made an appearance at a DPP campaign function.

"This is a most expensive meal, but what is most precious is your love for Taiwan and support for the party," Lu told the crowd, sending her best regards to the faction's 41 candidates.

Urging the public to help the DPP become the biggest party in the new legislature, Chang and Hsieh said that helping the party was the only way to secure the country's political stability, economic prosperity and long-term development.