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Taiwan court seals ballot boxes amid election dispute
2006-12-11
A district court in Taiwan's southern city of Kaohsiung has ordered the sealing of ballot boxes after the main opposition party claimed evidence of vote-rigging in a crunch mayoral election. The court took the action in response to a request by the Kuomintang (KMT) party following a surprise victory by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of embattled President Chen Shui-ban. The KMT, which backs closer ties with China, had tried to turn the mayoral contests there and in the capital Taipei into an effective referendum on Chen, who has been implicated with his family in a spate of high-profile corruption allegations. But while the party won the Taipei race as expected, its narrow defeat in the country's second city was a surprise. Sealing the boxes is a necessary step before any recount. The KMT said it feared that the independence-leaning DPP may try to destroy what it said was evidence of rigging. "It's not that we cannot afford to lose but we cannot be treated unjustly," the KMT's Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying told reporters. "An increasing amount of evidence has prompted us to file a lawsuit to annul the election results and demand a recount of the ballots cast," he said. The court's swift action to seal ballot boxes encourage Huang. "The court would not act if no flaws of the voting process were found by judges," Huang said, promising to come up with more of what he said was proof of DPP rigging. Chen Chu, the DPP's candidate, won 49.41 percent of the vote against 49.27 percent for Huang, according to the Central Electoral Commission, a margin of just 1,114 votes in what is a traditional ruling party stronghold. Polls ahead of the vote had identified Huang, a scholar-turned-politician, as the frontrunner. A KMT legislator estimated the number of suspicious ballots at 6,000. The KMT politicians also accused the DPP of spreading false allegations of vote-buying by Huang. Five masked men told a DPP press conference Friday that they had witnessed vote-buying, claims carried also on two television stations which are close to the ruling party but denied by Huang as a "set-up." In Taipei, the KMT's Hau Long-bin, a former environment minister and son of the island's former military strongman Hau Pei-tsun, beat his DPP rival Frank Hsieh. The KMT was victorious in parallel local council elections in both cities, winning 24 seats against the DPP's 18 in Taipei and 17 against the DPP's 15 in Kaohsiung. More than 64 percent of the two million-plus eligible voters in Taipei and 67 percent of the million-plus in Kaohsiung took part in the polls. Nevertheless, victory in Taipei failed to compensate for the KMT's disputed loss at Kaohsiung as the party had hoped to lure voters angry at the scandals implicating Chen and his family. Last month, the DPP was forced to suspend the membership of Chen's wife Wu Shu-chen after her indictment by prosecutors for claiming 14.8 million Taiwan dollars (450,000 US) in personal expenses from state funds. The president is also suspected of graft and forgery in the same case, but is immune from indictment until he leaves office. He has denied wrongdoing and refused to resign before his second and final term ends in May 2008.
Taiwan opposition wins vote by landslide (2008-01-12)Taiwan remains polarised after key mayoral races (2006-12-11)Taiwan court seals ballot boxes amid election dispute (2006-12-11)Taiwan votes for city mayors, ruling party on trial (2006-12-09)Taiwan mayor polls seen as test for ruling party (2006-11-26)
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