A cash-strapped Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday that it was likely that none of the five of its candidates in the Nov. 27 special municipality elections would receive any financial subsidies due to budgeting concerns.
“By the looks of the current situation, the amount of [financial support] is likely to be zero,” DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said.
His comments came after the DPP’s Central Executive Committee meeting yesterday approved a funding scheme that would see the party spend just under NT$70 million (US$2.2 million) to support the entire election campaign, money that would be acquired through individual and corporate donations in the coming months.
According to the DPP’s projections, up to 50 percent of the figure would come from small individual donations while the other half would come from organizations and businesses.
The NT$70 million, about the same amount spent by the DPP on last year’s local elections, will be used for campaign activities planned by the party, including election events, rallies and nationwide advertisements.
DPP candidates will largely be left on their own to raise donations against their well-funded Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterparts, Tsai said.
The announcement about the lack of central party funding comes despite news that during the January legislative by-elections, all three DPP candidates ran up heavy debts in funding their victorious campaigns.
Financial records revealed by the DPP’s Central Elections Committee on Tuesday show that DPP candidates who did not receive any support from the party ended up more than NT$10 million in debt despite spending nearly NT$6 million less than KMT candidates, who received NT$18 million in support from its central party.
However, Tsai said that despite being outspent by the KMT, the DPP had faith that it would still gain an upper hand in the elections.
He said that the majority of total donations during the by-elections went to DPP candidates.
“The DPP cannot match the KMT in terms of support or funding,” he said. “But judging from the past few elections, the large amount of subsidies given to KMT candidates have not helped their showing.”
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