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Candidates sign up for clean campaign

President Chen Shui-bian, center, and Vice President Annette Lu, right, hold an oversized ``Political Donations Transparency Pledge'' after signing it yesterday. The pair also signed the ``Clean Election Pledge.'' The signing was witnessed by Chai Sung-lin, left, chairman of a non-governmental organization promoting clean elections. PHOTO: CNA

Presidential candidates of both the ruling and opposition parties yesterday signed agreements pledging to run clean campaigns as well as to make public the sources of political donations.

The agreements were signed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his running mate, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).

The two agreements proposed by the National Association Promoting Clean Elections are called the Clean Election Agreement and the Agreement on Political Donation Transparency.

The Clean Election Agreement asks presidential candidates to promise to run a bribery-free campaign, allow for the transparency of political donations, promote ethnic harmony and stop wasting environmental resources.

The second agreement requires the candidates of both camps to make public all the sources of donations their campaign headquarters have received since their establishment. The donation information must be published on the Web sites of the two campaign headquarters on Feb. 20 and be updated on March 13.

"The clean election campaign is the only way to ensure the `black gold' political system is eliminated and that democratic politics can continue," Chen said.

He slammed the former KMT regime of tolerating rampant bribery as a way to retain power.

"Under authoritarian rule, the former administration gripped power while also trying to retain an image as a democratic government. They tolerated the involvement of mafia, bribery and violence in elections to allow for the survival of the regime," Chen said.

"Although the transfer of political power in 2000 ended authoritarian rule, it did not eradicate the remnants of black gold politics. That's why the DPP government has tried to enforce many reforms in the hope of bringing transparency to every level of the political system and to eliminate illegal money politics."

Lien and Soong yesterday signed the first agreement to run a clean election, but did not formally sign the second agreement on donation transparency.

Lien and Soong signed only their initials, "C L" and "J S," on the second agreement and said they would not formally endorse the agreement with their full names in Chinese until Chen makes the first move to reveal the donation information.

"We support the political donation transparency agreement. However, since President Chen always betrays his own words, we will only sign it when Chen gets all of his administrative staff to endorse the agreement. Otherwise it would just look like a show we did in front of the public," Soong said.
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