President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) presidential campaign received an estimated NT$745.77 million (US$23.29 million) in campaign donations, more than tripling the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) NT$233.02 million, the Control Yuan said in a document published yesterday.
People First Party (PFP) candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) received about NT$22 million in donations and ended the campaign NT$75.9 million in debt, the document said.
The bulk of the contributions for the campaign of Tsai and her running mate, Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) — NT$512.99 million — was comprised of small donor contributions, while political parties gave NT$6.37 million, the document said.
Tsai’s campaign spent more than NT$637.8 million. Advertising costs were the highest expenditure at NT$230.39 million, the document said.
The campaign ended with a surplus of NT$109.49 million, it said.
The campaign of Chu and his running mate, Jennifer Wang (王如玄), reported a gross income of about NT$233.02 million, of which affiliated political parties provided an estimated NT$200.16 million — the highest-paying contributor to the campaign by an overwhelming margin, the document said.
The campaign ended with a with a surplus of NT$20.45 million, it said.
Soong and his running mate, Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩), received an estimated NT$22.12 million in donations, the least of the three campaigns and less than several other candidates who were running for the legislature received, the document said.
However, Soong’s campaign went into the red, spending an estimated NT$98 million, leaving it with an estimated deficit of NT$75.87 million, the document said.
In addition, the Control Yuan document listed the campaign finances of KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who campaigned as the KMT presidential candidate until her replacement by Chu.
Hung’s campaign received an estimated gross income of NT$65.88 million, while spending NT$66.31 million, leaving it with a deficit of NT$420,000, the document said.
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