President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) presidential campaign this year ended with a NT$24.13 million (US$814,845) deficit, while Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) campaign for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had a NT$30.19 million surplus, the Control Yuan said in a report published yesterday.
People First Party candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) also listed a deficit for election spending of about NT$30 million, the report showed.
Regarding donations by political parties, the KMT gave its presidential campaign NT$6 million, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) provided NT$14,500.
Tsai and her running mate, William Lai (賴清德), received NT$564.76 million in donations, including NT$338.14 million from individuals, NT$160.56 from corporate donors, NT$6.44 million from private groups and foundations, and NT$59.56 million from anonymous donors and others, the report said.
Tsai’s campaign spent NT$588.89 million, including NT$67.91 million for staff, NT$325.86 million for promotions, NT$4.29 million for truck rentals, NT$29.20 million for office space, NT$101.79 million for organizing rallies, NT$6.59 million for transportation and NT$25.67 million for miscellaneous spending, the report said, adding that NT$26.82 million was returned to donors.
The Han campaign received NT$456.31 million, including NT$371.12 million from individuals, NT$45.26 million from corporate donors, NT$1.23 million from private groups and foundations, and NT$32.67 from anonymous donors and others, the report showed.
His campaign spent NT$426.17 million, including NT$6.38 million for staff, NT$381.28 million for promotions, NT$1.68 million for truck rentals, NT$930,000 for office space, NT$23.52 million for organizing rallies, NT$3.4 million for transportation, NT$7.39 million for miscellaneous spending and it returned NT$1.57 million to donors, the report said.
The report showed that the Han campaign also paid NT$31,500 for an appearance on the YouTube channel The Night Night Show (博恩夜夜秀), which was 2.5 times the NT$13,100 the Tsai campaign spent to appear on the show.
The Tsai campaign employed two affiliated publicity companies, Venti Venti Consulting and Touchstone Media, the report said.
Venti Venti invoiced the campaign for 59 projects, at NT$20,000 to NT$2 million each, including on project planning, advertising, video and photography production, promotions and online broadcasting, while Touchstone took on 10 cases for the campaign, including advertisements, office space design, photography and music video production, the report said.
The Han campaign primarily worked with Carat Media on 60 projects, such as campaign ads, and Jet-Go Consulting on six cases, including ads focused on the messaging app Line, research, public surveys, and design and placing campaign ads, it showed.
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