Taiwan High Court judges yesterday accepted arguments by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawyers in two disagreements with attorneys for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance.
The disagreements were over whether the Central Election Commission's (CEC) "Graphic Six" should be used to identify an invalid ballot and whether voters' name lists should be duplicated and distributed to every district court where a recount will take place.
"Graphic Six" was the name given to an example of an invalid ballot made public by the commission before the March 20 election. A "Graphic Six" ballot has a stamp on the stamp area of a specific candidate and another one on the same candidate's name or picture. Before the Presidential Election and Recall Law (
Yesterday's proceedings began with alliance attorney Hanson Chiang (
"Article 60-1-3 of the Presidential Election and Recall Law clearly states that an invalid ballot will be recognized when `the vote is not able to be distinguished from the ballot,'" Chiang said. "However, a `Graphic Six' ballot is able to be distinguished, is it not? Therefore, we request it be labeled `a controversial ballot' instead of an `invalid ballot.'"
The DPP and the pan-blue camp had previously agreed that during the recount a "controversial ballot" would be presented to judges for a final determination.
Chiang's argument was immediately rebutted by DPP attorney Lo Bing-cheng (羅秉成). Lo said the CEC's rules on invalid ballots were made and approved by both parties' candidates before the election.
"To avoid invalid ballots, the commission's workers posted announcements at each polling station to remind voters how to make their votes count. It does not make sense to make new rules now that we have to recount the ballots," Lo said.
As for the pan-blue camp's request that copies of the name list of voters be made and distributed, its lawyers cited Article 242 of the Code of Civil Procedure (
"It will be a full, nationwide recount. If we can do this [copy the name list], it will definitely speed up the recount process and make everybody's job easier," blue-camp lawyer Lin Mei-ching (林玫卿) said. "Whether the total number of the ballots matches the total number of voters will be clear after we match them up."
The DPP's legal team insisted that the voter list for a constituency should only be duplicated and given to the pan-blue camp's legal representatives if a dispute occurs in that constituency during the recount process. They said maintaining voters' rights to privacy were paramount.
"The addresses and identification-card numbers of voters are on the lists. It really isn't a smart move to distribute that information to everybody who will be working on the recount because nobody can guarantee that such information will not be leaked," said Joseph Lin (
The two sides have agreed that the recount will be held on May 10 and should be completed within 10 days.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS