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.
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