Taipei Times
Date: Oct 21, 2018
By: Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) campaign held its first large-scale public event in
People look on as a member of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s campaign staff takes the stage during an election event in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
Qixing Park (七星公園) in Beitou District (北投) yesterday, but the municipality fined Ko’s campaign office for illegally parking his “mobile campaign headquarters” — a stage truck — in the park.
The event was described as a “fun fair,” after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) protested that the Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office had rejected their applications to hold campaign events in public parks.
The parks office gave the campaign a ticket at 9am when the stage truck drove into the park to prepare the main stage for the afternoon event and continued issuing fines every two hours until the event ended in the evening, for a total fine of NT$14,400.
“Ko values the key principles of ‘respect professionals, perform administrative duties according to the law, and be open and transparent,’ so the campaign office will respect the office’s penalties and pay the fines according to the law,” Ko campaign spokesman Tsai Chun-wei (蔡峻維) said. [FULL STORY]