Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
They had good reason, they said, to believe that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had cheated during the election.
On Saturday night thousands of Lien-Soong supporters rioted at prosecutors' offices in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung. Initially, they were led by PFP lawmakers and intended to petition prosecutors and judges to seize the ballots and organize a recount. However, the crowds gradually got out of control as some protesters began to smash their way through road blocks set up by the police.
PHOTO: HSIEH FENG-CHIU, TAIPEI TIMES
The series of incidents began in Taichung, after PFP Lawmaker Shen Chih-hui (
The nearly 1,000 protesters then started to attack the prosecutors' office, smashing the glass doors.
Shortly after the incident in Taichung, the Kaohsiung crowd, led by PFP Lawmaker Chiu Yi (
While the police were trying to calm the protesters, Chiu, however, used a speaker to whip up the mob's anger by shouting that the police were trying to interfere with the mob's "free will to speak out."
In Taipei City, another crowd of protesters surrounded the Taiwan High Court and asked the court to immediately accept and implement their application to seize all the ballots and recount them.
Although attacked by some protesters, the police did not force the angry mobs to disperse and no arrests were made
The Taiwan High Court decided to accept the application and asked Taiwan's 21 district courts to carry out the order.
As of press time yesterday, district courts in Changhua, Penghu, Keelung, Taoyuan, Kinmen, Kaohsiung, Chiayi and Taipei have all completed the order.
According to Article 104 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (
As of yesterday, the Lien-Soong camp's Kaohsiung campaign headquarters had proposed nine reasons as evidence to show that the DPP had cheated through the presidential election.
"We are just following the order to seize the ballots. However, our superior officers have not given a deadline to recount them," a spokesman for the Taipei District Court said.
Upon the approval by the Taipei City Government, Lien-Soong supporters filled up Ketagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道) in front of the Presidential Office to continue their protest from 3pm yesterday. The protest was supposed to disperse at 10pm.
Also See Stories:
Kaohsiung mayor asks for calm
Hu captures Taichung for the blues
Religious leaders call on the public to respect result
Civic group proud over number of invalid ballots
Lien demands an immediate recount
Ma finally tells protesters they should go home
Pan-blue protest reminiscent of 2000 riot
DPP warns its members not to provoke pan-blues
Yu says demonstrators are `barking up the wrong tree'
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS