Controversial victory for Chen

"We will stick to our belief in uniting ethnic groups, believing in Taiwan, and insisting on continuous reform," Chen said.

"We also hope Beijing will look at the presidential election result and the referendum turnout rationally and thereby accept the Taiwanese people's choice in order to create peace and stability across the Strait," Chen said.

The CEC also organized a referendum simultaneously with the presidential election in the same polling stations.

In the referendum, voters were asked to vote yes or no on two questions:

First: The Taiwan people demand that the cross-strait issue be resolved through peaceful means. Should mainland China refuse to dismantle the missiles targeting Taiwan and to openly renounce the use of force against us, do you agree that the government should purchase more advanced anti-missile weapons to strengthen Taiwan's self-defense capabilities?

Second: Do you agree that our government should undertake negotiations with mainland China on the basis of a "peace and stability" framework for cross-strait interactions in order to build consensus and for the welfare of the peoples of both sides?

On the first question, 7,452,340 people picked up the ballots, representing 45.17 percent of the eligible, with 359,711 invalid ballots.

Among the valid ballots, 6,511,216 people voted yes, while 581,413 voted no.

On the second question, 7,444,148 ballots were cast, representing 45.12 percent of eligible voters, with 578,574 invalid.

Of the valid ballots, 6,319,663 voted yes, and 545,911 no.

Walking slowly into a polling station in Taipei with dozens of armed guards surrounding him yesterday, Chen, along with his wife Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍), appearing for the first time in public since Friday's shooting, cast his presidential and referendum ballots, saying afterward: "God wouldn't let me die, because he knew I hadn't participated in Taiwan's first-ever referendum."

On the pan-blue side, which had an official policy of not voting in the referendum, Lien did not pick up the referendum ballot papers.

"The target of the bullets were not specific persons, but democracy," Lien said, "but I believe the Taiwan people won't let the incident, whose real cause has yet to be found out, influence the election."

Soong did not pick up the referendum ballots, either, in yesterday's polling while Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has strongly argued that the referendum was illegal, refused to say whether he had cast a ballot or not.

As of press time yesterday, China remained silent about Chen's victory.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman reportedly declined to comment, only referring all queries to the Taiwan Affairs Office.

That office had no immediate comment, though one official reportedly said they were watching the election closely on television and officials were holding a closed-door meeting late into the night to decide how to respond.