Taiwan ballot boxes sealed

2004-03-21 07:18

Taipei - A Taipei court has ordered all ballot boxes sealed from Taiwan's contested presidential election, drawing cheers from a crowd that had protested angrily through the night with demands for a recount.

No recount was immediately ordered, however. A High Court spokesperson, Judge Wen Yao-yuan, said officials needed to preserve evidence after challenger Lien Chan sought to nullify President Chen Shui-bian's narrow victory on Saturday.

Chen scored just 50.1% of the vote, compared to 49.9% for Lien, who immediately raised questions about more than 330 000 ballots that allegedly were spoiled, and he also called a shooting that wounded Chen on Friday suspicious.

Angry crowds scuffled with police, broke windows and pushed down barriers early on Sunday in Taiwan's second and third largest cities. The demonstrators claimed that the alleged irregularities had tilted the election results.

Narrow margin

The rowdy mobs stayed out all night after election officials said Chen won Saturday's race by less than 1 percentage point, or about 30 000 votes.

Chanting "Inspect the votes," they demanded that the Central Election Commission seal all ballot boxes in the 13 000 polling booths around the island for a recount.

The opposition said Chen did not have the legal authority to call the referendum and successfully rallied most people to skip the vote.

- SAPA