The Taiwan Statebuilding Party on Thursday called for an end to “big money politics” and suggested limits on campaign spending for city and county councilor candidates in November’s local elections.
“We ask the government to enforce regulations to end ‘black gold’ influence in elections,” party official Chang Po-yang (張博洋) said at an event in Kaohsiung.
“Black gold” refers to the monetary influence of organized crime.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
For November’s city and county councilor elections, the party recommends a campaign spending cap of NT$3 million (US$101,163), Chang said, adding that parties should rely on idealistic young people and other volunteers to spread their messages.
Without spending constraints, Taiwanese politics is destined to become the exclusive domain of corporations, wealthy people, family dynasties and candidates with ties to organized crime, he said.
Media reported in 2018 that successful city council campaigns spent a minimum of NT$15 million, former party chief financial officer Chang Ting-ting (張婷婷) said.
“We even heard that one candidate for Kaohsiung City council in 2018 had spent NT$80 million,” she said. “That is an outrageous figure. A person could buy a luxury mansion in Taiwan for that money.”
Party executives and candidates at the event built a mock brick wall of cardboard and paper, with “bricks” displaying expensive campaign items such as promotions, television advertising, billboards, banquets, campaign trucks and brochure printing costs.
Party members took turns hammering bricks off the wall to represent knocking expensive items off of campaigns.
Wealthy people and powerful interests regularly spend more than NT$20 million to help a candidate win a seat, Chang Po-yang said, adding that councilors become more interested in helping donors recoup their “investment” rather than following up on promises.
“Big money” campaign funding has led to well-known scandals regarding office-assistant expenditures, and charges of fraud, bid-rigging and public-project embezzlement, he said.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
Shih Hsin University President Chen Ching-he (陳清河) yesterday issued a public apology for comments made in his commencement speech last week, stating that he has asked the school to suspend his duties and halt his wages for two months as a show of contrition. At the commencement ceremony on May 30, Chen said, “If you don’t manage your time well, or your own emotions, or your health, then I am telling every one of you — put a quick end to ‘you,’ because the world has no need for ‘you.’” The comments have sparked significant controversy online, and Chen through an open
RSS