President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen also lashed out at those who accused him of rigging the election.
"Those who accused me of vote-rigging are making the gravest insult to my integrity," Chen said during a meeting with the heads of the governments' five branches at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"Neither I nor my administration, not to mention those 200,000 staff members who took charge of the vote-counting process on March 20, would cheat in the election," he said.
"Since I did not conduct any vote-rigging, I welcome and support a public vote recount, the results of which I will 100 percent accept, no matter the outcome," Chen said.
"I also urge KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Chen said he wanted to solve the dispute as soon as possible and wished to know why there were so many invalid ballots.
"You can propose the question and try to examine those ballots via judicial processes. You can't simply describe any invalid ballots, however, as vote-rigging," Chen said.
He asked the public to show empathy toward protesters in front of the Presidential Office, saying he could understand the protesters' feelings as he also had the experience of losing elections.
Responsibility
"I will not order the government to disperse those people," Chen said, adding that pan-blue leaders Lien and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
"You [Lien and Soong] brought people there, you should shoulder the responsibility of sending them home," Chen said.
He said a recount should be realized through either political negotiations or legal amendments.
"On March 21, the day after the presidential election, I ordered my staff and the Cabinet to work out an approach that would realize the opposition's request of launching a recount," Chen said.
"Since the case is being dealt with by the legal system, the government has no right to become involved, unless the opposition parties would like to withdraw their cases," he said.
Chen suggested two ways to realize a recount. The first involved authorizing a court and neutral task force to monitor the recount. The second was to amend the President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (選罷法) to allow the Central Election Commission to begin a recount within seven days.
Chen stressed that all politicians should abide by the law and act in accordance with the country's legal system.
"Taiwan is a democratic nation ruled by laws; therefore, the insistence on legal principles should be regarded as what we live for," he said.
Chen rejected a suggestion by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to issue an emergency decree to order a recount.
"The emergency decree will solve nothing and will just make things more complicated," he said.
Physical evidence
Chen also lifted his shirt to display the wound on his stomach, looking to counter conspiracy theories that suggest he staged Friday's attempted assassination.
"We are the ones who were shot. We are more eager than anyone else to find out the truth," he said.
"People are wondering why I could still walk into the hospital after being shot," Chen said. "It was because I am the president of Republic of China, I can never fall down."
He recalled the emotional stress of being shot.
"I almost could not say a thing to my wife on the phone," the president said. Officials released on Sunday a photograph of Chen on the operating table, holding his mobile phone to his ear while surgeons tended to his wound.
"Nineteen years ago, we were almost separated for ever. Nineteen years later, I almost did not live to speak to my wife again. I felt many different emotions," he said.
Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen (
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
RSS