Chen and Lu pave way for recount

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) signed and submitted a letter of consent to the Taiwan High Court yesterday allowing for a recount of the March 20 election.

According to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), Chen and Lu submitted the letter after the court confirmed it had received at 11pm on Monday the pan-blue camp's suit seeking to suspend the result of the election.

A computer chose at random the judges who will hear the case, said Taiwan High Court spokesman Wen Yau-yuan (溫耀源).

"The case was assigned to our No. 10 election court, which will be hosted by Presiding Judge Wu Ching-yuan (吳景源)," Wen said.

As of press time last night, Wu and the other judges who will hear the case -- Cheng Chun-hui (鄭純惠) and Teng Yun-chieh (滕允潔) -- were in a meeting to discuss how to hear the case.

According to the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法), in addition to the agreement from the president and the vice president, the High Court requires agreement from the Central Election Commission (CEC) and its local branch offices to begin to recount since Chen, Lu, the CEC and its branch offices were listed as defendants.

Once all the agreements have been collected, judges can skip hearings and begin a recount.

Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Justin Chou (周守訓) said the pan-blue camp's second suit, which seeks to have the presidential election ruled a fraud and call for a new vote, will be refiled "soon."

The blue camp had not refiled the second suit as of press time yesterday.

Chang said the pan-blue camp would have to pay the legal costs for the suit since KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) are the plaintiffs.

Wen said that judges will decide who will pay, but the KMT-PFP alliance said the Taiwan High Court should foot the bill.

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