Taiwan opens up political donation archives to public
20:08, 16 February 2009
TAIPEI. February 16. KAZINFORM Taiwan's supervision department Monday opened the archives of political donations to allow the public to check the names of the donors and the sums they have donated to their parties.
The records are open to people aged 20 or older, and they must bring their ID cards and pay 20 New Taiwan dollars (70 U.S. cents).
The archives cover the records of all political donations to candidates in elections from county leaders to leader of Taiwan. But the records do not include the political donations to Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian, which may disappoint some people who want to know about the figures, Kazinform cites Xinhua.
According to Taiwan law, anonymous donations must not exceed 10,000 NT dollars, while cash worth 100,000 NT dollars must be donated in the form of a cheque or remittance by bank or post.
Chen and his family are being prosecuted on corruption charges.