According to information released by the Control Yuan, the legislative elections earlier this year saw a total of NT$15.533 million (US$490,000) in political donations that were in violation of the Political Donation Act (政治獻金法), and hence will be confiscated.
Of these, most came from donations from profit-seeking enterprises that have not made compulsory compensations for cumulative deficits. These 65 cases amount to NT$7.95 million.
The Control Yuan counted 104 cases of violations from September of last year to June 10. Other than donations from profit-seeking enterprises in deficit, there are seven cases, totaling NT$3.64 million of political donations from foreign citizens, corporations and other organizations.
After investigation, the Control Yuan said that these do not include corporations from China, most being domestic businesses with foreign capital and more than 5 percent foreign shareholdings.
According to the Control Yuan, of 241 legislative candidates, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓)was the most succesful fundraiser with NT$430,000.
KMT Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) spent the least out of all female legislators, NT$8.86 million, while independent Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) was the lowest spending male legislator with NT$9.05 million.
According to the Control Yuan, the total intake of political donations for all 241 candidates amounted to NT$285 million.
Control Yuan officials speculate that the single-district two ballot election system reduced costs for parties; however, it is also possible that much of the expenditure was of a non-accountable nature, so that the amount exceeds actual figures.
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