Asian Election Stakeholder Forum III (AESF III) August 22 – 26, 2016 Bali, Indonesia "Transparency & integrity for Quality Elections" General Election Commission Republic of Indonesia and General Election Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)

1. The Institution of Political Donations
and Campaign Fund in Taiwan
Eric Yu
Associate Professor of Election Study Center and Political Science
National Chengchi University
Director of Domestic Affairs
Taiwan Foundation for Democracy

2. Purposes of Regulations
• Fair Campaign
• Tackling Laundering
• Open and Transparent Politics
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 1

3. Does money really matter?
The 2004 legislative Election (Single Non-transferable Voting
System) is the 1st election after Political Donation (PD) Act passed
(Ding-ming Wang, 2011):
• Challenger’s spending has a positive effect on their electoral
outcome, while the incumbents doesn’t.
• The spending of the same-party competitors has a significant
negative externality on the electoral result, especially for the
incumbent's votes.
• The negative externality becomes more severe in the large
districts.
• So money does matter!!
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 2

4. History of Major Regulations
• 1963: Anti-Corruption Act (AC Act)
• 1980: Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (CSER Act)
• 1995: Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall
Act (PER Act)
• 2004: Political Donations Act (PD Act)
• 2007: 21th Amended CSER Act
• 2009: 8th Amended AC Act
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 3

5. Where does the money come from? (1/2)
• Everywhere except (PD Act Article 7):
• Enterprises which the Gov. holds more than 20% of the capital.
• Manufacturers that have signed government procurement.
• Deficient profit-seeking businesses.
• Religious associations.
• Persons not having the right of suffrage.
• Foreign, PROC, HK and Macao people or institutions.
• Businesses operated or invested by political parties.
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 4

6. Where does the money come from? (2/2)
• Political parties, associations, and persons that plan to
participate in campaign may not accept the donations from
objects other than those referred to in the preceding
Article.(PD Act Article 8)
• A person may not contribute donations in the name of
others or contribute secret donation of more than $10,000
NT dollars. (about $330 US dollars) (PD Act Article 14)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 5

7. Where can you put your money?
• The Political Donations should putted in a
dedicated account in a financial institution ONLY
(PD Act Article 10):
• Every candidate should open an account for
political donations before he/she can accept
donations.
• In personal account? Impossible!
• Act on Property-Declaration by Public Servant （since
1993)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 6

8. What if you put the money in your personal
account?
• The suspect may be ordered to make an account of the
increased property or income if public servant’s income be
doubted from stealing, blackmailing, taking kickbacks and
taking bribes.
• If the person fails to make an account without reasonable
excuse, he or she shall be punished by imprisonment for a
term of less than five years, detention and may also be
punished by a fine not to exceed $100M NT dollars. ($3.3M
US dollars) (AC Act Article 6-1, after 8th Amended)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 7

9. Donative Period (1/2)
• PD Act Article 12:
• President and Vice President: from 1 year before expiration of the
tenure of President, to the day before the polling day of election of
the next session.
• Legislators: from 10 months before expiration of the tenure of the
members of Legislative Yuan, to the day before the polling day of
the election of the next session.
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 8

10. Donative Period (2/2)
• PD Act Article 12:
• Municipal councilors, governor of municipality, county (city)
councilors, and governor of county (city): from 8 months before
expiration of the tenure of the civil servants, to the day before the
polling day of election of the next session.
• Representatives of township (city) congress, chiefs of townships
(cities), and chiefs of villages: from 4 months before expiration of
the tenure of the civil servants, to the day before the polling day of
election of the next session.
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11. Infinite Donations? (1/5)
• An easy answer: NO
• Political parties, political associations and persons that plan
to participate in campaign may not collect political
donations by issuing period or indeterminate, interest-
bearing or interest-free bonds or other securities to
uncertain persons. (PD Act Article 13)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 10

12. Infinite Donations? (2/5)
• The total amount of donations contributed to the same
political party or political association each year may not
exceed the following limits (PD Act Article 17):
• By individuals: NT$300,000. ($10,000 US dollars)
• By profit-seeking businesses: NT$3,000,000. ($100,000 US dollars)
• By civil associations: NT$2,000,000. ($66,000 US dollars)
• Counted year by year！
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 11

13. Infinite Donations? (3/5)
• The total amount of donations contributed to the same
person planning to participate in campaign each year may
not exceed the following limits(PD Act Article 18):
• By individuals: $100,000 NT dollars. ($3,300 US dollars)
• By profit-seeking businesses: $1,000,000 NT dollars. ($33,000 US
dollars)
• By civil associations: $500,000 NT dollars. ($16,000 US dollars)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 12

14. Infinite Donations? (4/5)
• The total amount of donations contributed to different
political parties or political associations each year may not
exceed the following limits(PD Act Article 17):
• By a same individual: NT$600,000. ($20,000 US dollars)
• By a same profit-seeking business: $6,000,000 NT dollars. ($200,000
US dollars)
• By a same civil association: $4,000,000 NT dollars. ($133,000 US
dollars)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 13

15. Infinite Donations?(5/5)
• The total amount of donations contributed to different
persons planning to participate in campaign each year may
not exceed the following limits(PD Act Article 18):
• By a same individual: $200,000 NT dollars. ($6,600 US dollars)
• By a same profit-seeking business: $2,000,000 NT dollars. ($66,000
US dollars)
• By a same civil association: $1,000,000 NT dollars. ($33,000 US
dollars)
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 14

16. Are the donations secret?
• The following institutions shall list relevant information on
their websites for the convenience or in writing to provide
relevant un-established information (PD Act Article 7):
• Ministry of Economic Affairs and related business competent
authorities.
• Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan and Ministry of
Finance.
• Ministry of the Interior.
• Central Election Commission, The Control Yuan.
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 15

17. What are the penalties?(1/2)
• To fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 5 years. This
also apply to who accept or collect donations for the
person planning to participate in campaign (PD Act Article
25):
• Candidate who accepts political donations infringing the provisions
of Article 7.
• Does not hand in to the authority hearing declaration.
• Collect donations by issuing period or indeterminate, interest-
bearing or interest-free bonds or other securities to uncertain
persons.
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 16

18. What are the Penalties? (2/2)
• A person planning to participate in campaign, if infringes
the provision of Paragraph 1 of Article 10 and sets a
dedicated account to accept political donations without
permission, shall be condemned to fixed-term
imprisonment of not more than 3 years, and may be fined a
sum of not less than NT$200,000 ($6,600 US dollars) and
not more than NT$1,000,000 ($33,000 US dollars) in
addition.
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 17

19. How about the Campaign Fund?
PER Act Article 38
and
CSER Act Article 41
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 18

20. The Maximum Campaign Fund (1/2)
• President and Vice President:
• Population*0.7*$20 NT dollars + $100 million NT dollars
• The population of Taiwan is about 23 million, so the max
campaign fund of presidential and vice presidential
election will be about $422 million NT dollars. (about $14M
US dollars)
• In the 2016 presidential election:
• Tsai (DPP): collected $740M NT dollars ($24M US dollars) and spent $630M NT
dollars ($21M US dollars).
• Chu (KMT): collected $230M NT dollars ($7.6M US dollars) and spent $220M
NT dollars ($7.3M US dollars).
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 19

21. The Maximum Campaign Fund(2/2)
• Municipal mayor :
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $50M NT dollars
• Governor of a county (city):
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $30M NT dollars
• The chief of an Indigenous district:
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $6M NT dollars
• The chief of a village (borough):
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $200,000 NT dollars
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 20

22. The Maximum Campaign Fund(3/2)
• Legislators, municipal councilors:
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $10M NT dollars
• Each district has about 300,000 residents, so the maximum of
campaign fund is about $16M NT dollars (about $540,000 US
dollars)
• County(city) councilors:
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $6M NT dollars
• The representatives of a township(city) congress or
Indigenous district congress :
• Population*0.7*$30 NT dollars + $2M NT dollars
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 21

23. What are the Penalties about the Fund?
• PER Act: No punishment
• CSER Act:
• It had before, but gone after 21th amended for “encouraging
declaring honestly” in 2007.
• The campaign fund which exceed the maximum shall be fined a
sum of not less than $100,000 NT dollars (about $3,300 US dollars)
and not more than $500,000 NT dollars (about $16,000 US dollars)
(CSER Act Article 95-1, abolished).
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24. Concluding Remarks
• Strong regulation on donation
• All the information needs to be audited
• Not much regulation on spending
• Encourage people to report spending
• Public pressure (media effect)
• Partial support by the government
• Semi-public financing campaign – about $30 NT dollars
($1 US dollars) for one vote
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25. Thank you very much for your attention!!
Q & A
Taiwan's Campaign Finance 24