Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and his campaign team made public their campaign expenditure details yesterday and called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) to follow suit.
Ko’s campaign team, aiming to improve transparency of his campaign activities, yesterday at a press conference in Taipei listed items ranging from staff salaries through transportation, to the office’s tissues and throat pills.
Accompanied by his campaign director, Yao Li-ming (姚立明), and an accountant, Ko said that from April 25 to July 31, the team’s total campaign expenditure amounted to NT$12.03 million (US$401 million), NT$4.56 million of which was personnel expenses, which was the highest, followed by NT$3.66 million for campaign activities expenses and NT$1.98 million for public relations.
Ko said open government and public participation are the main pillars of his campaign. Many in the team opposed the idea at first, he said, but added that if any change is to come about, he should be the one to start the action.
Emphasizing that the manner and style of doing business in his campaign team would be transplanted to the Taipei City Government if he is elected, Ko said he would continue displaying with his campaign team in the next 80 days what he expects the city government to do in the future.
The team also made public their sources of income, which include all kinds of donations amounting to NT$22.23 million. Donations by individuals contributed the largest proportion, NT$14.37 million, followed by NT$5.74 million earned from fundraising on the Internet.
Meanwhile, the Chinese-language Apple Daily ran a report disclosing the property declarations made by the two major Taipei mayoral candidates, in which it is said that Lien and his wife own properties worth more than NT$140 million, with no cars registered in their names “despite often being seen in cars whenever he or the couple leave their home,” and Ko has, among other properties, an apartment in Daan District (大安) worth about NT$100 million.
Responding to the report, Ko said: “I made my own money.”
He added that the market value of real estate is open to speculation.
The properties of Ko and his wife, both of whom are physicians, are all products of their hard work, “which is different from Lien’s,” Yao said, implicitly referring to Lien’s privileged background.
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