The People First Party (PFP) charged yesterday that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is improperly using the political clout of major party-affiliated government officials to raise money for its candidates running in the year-end legislative elections.
Referring to recent media reports that the DPP has set fundraising guidelines for influential party members, PFP spokesman Liu Wen-hsiung (
He added that the guidelines, and the secrecy surrounding party donations, smacks of political extortion.
"We've already received complaints from several businesspeople that they've been under pressure from people in power to give money," Liu said yesterday.
In response, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin (
According to recent media reports, the DPP has set fundraising goals for most of its political heavyweights, in order to increase the party's campaign war chest for its year-end legislative candidates.
According to reports, the party has given Vice President Annette Lu (
Chung confirmed that those DPP fundraising targets are correct.
"The DPP should not allow any party members that are now government officials to endorse the campaigns of legislative candidates," Liu said. "After all, are there really any businesses that will refuse the request of a premier or a vice president for money? These businesses are donating money to buy `insurance' from the people with administrative power."
"`Green gold' is more terrible than black gold [corruptly-obtained money]," PFP legislator Pang Chien-kuo (
Liu and Pang made their comments during a press conference held yesterday.
Earlier, relevant government officials, such as Yu and Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
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