President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) received political contributions totaling NT$677.4 million (US$21.75 million) for their presidential campaign, said an official of the Control Yuan.
Hsieh Yu-nan (謝育男), director of the watchdog body’s Department of Asset Reports, said the amount received by the two Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidates was calculated for the period from June 8 last year to April 21 this year.
A balance of NT$37.46 million remained after the March presidential election, including NT$15.28 million in assets such as furniture and cars.
Hsieh said the total for the funds was computed from when the bank account was opened to when the contributions were reported.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and his running mate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) received political contributions totaling NT$404.03 million, he said.
The amount was computed for the period May 31 last year to April 13 this year. The DPP ticket had an overdraft of NT$23.65 million after the election, and had no non-liquid assets, Hsieh Yu-nan said.
The Political Donation Law (政治獻金法) stipulates that candidates should report political contributions to the relevant authorities within two months of an election.
The authorities will in turn announce the findings of their reviews within three months of receiving the candidates reports, Hsieh Yu-nan said.
At a separate setting yesterday, the DPP caucus yesterday alleged that Ma faked the total of his presidential campaign expenses.
“Look at the way they [the KMT] campaigned, do you believe they only spent this little for all that?” DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) told a press conference.
Lai said that the KMT spent NT$267 million for Ma’s campaign whereas Frank Hsieh only received NT$35 million from the DPP. It was not a fair campaign for other competitors because “the KMT possesses a great amount of illegal assets to support its candidates’ campaigns,” he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMAMY CHUANG
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