Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), seeking re-election, earlier this month closed his donation account after his campaign funding reached NT$10 million (US$325,300), Lai’s campaign office spokesman Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said yesterday.
“We hope to keep campaign expenses to less than NT$10 million and the campaign since made the decision to close the account to further donations,” Lin said.
Sources said that expenditures for city councilor campaigns usually range between NT$5 million and NT$20 million, depending on how heated the competition was, adding that it was very difficult to keep spending on municipal mayor elections below NT$10 million.
Lai has promised to make the Greater Tainan mayoral election about progress and responsibility, and to focus on his policies, so Lai’s campaign did not set up a campaign headquarters, place flags or billboards or hire loudspeaker trucks, Lin said.
“We have received calls recently from supporters saying their donations are not coming through, and we wish to say that we did not announce the decision [earlier] in the hopes of silently encouraging the election culture to change and progress,” Lin said. “We are confident our candidate can bring about a completely different sort of election.”
Lin yesterday said it was interesting to note how independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), also a doctor by profession, recently announced the same thing, adding that it was moving that both doctors were seeking to break down the traditional political boundaries and trying to bring about a healthier political culture.
On Nov. 10, Ko’s campaign office annouced that his campagin would stop taking any donations by Nov. 15, as team calculations suggest it has sufficient funds to run the campaign until election day on Nov. 29.
Campaign executive director Yao Li-ming (姚立明) said at the time that Ko’s campaign office received NT$89 million in donations from August until the end of last month.
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