After months of hearings and deliberations on one of two pan-blue camp lawsuits, the re-election of President Chen Shui-bian (
"The judges arrived at this decision because the results of the investigation and hearings [with the lawyers] did not prove the allegations leveled by the plaintiffs," Taiwan High Court spokesman Wen Yau-yuan (溫耀源) said.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Presiding Judge Wu Ching-yuan (
Wen said the verdict had rejected the plaintiff's three claims. He said the pan-blue camp had failed to provide adequate evidence for any of the arguments presented to the court.
The first claim was that the ballots had been miscounted, prompting an exhaustive recount of all ballots. Those ballots disputed by lawyers from both camps were then transferred to the judges for appraisal.
Based on this recount, the court announced yesterday that Chen and Lu won the election by 25,563 votes. The original margin was reported as 29,518.
The second claim was that the pan-green camp had attempted to influence or manipulate the result of the presidential election by staging an assassination attempt on March 19, the eve of the election.
Pan-blue lawyers contended that Chen and Lu had staged the assassination attempt, then launched a so-called "national security mechanism" so that the Chen-Lu ticket and the referendum held in tandem with the election would attract more support out of sympathy for the candidates.
Wen said that forensic analysis by Henry Lee, an overseas consultant requested by the pan-blue camp but hired by the government, had concluded that it was impossible for Chen and Lu to have staged the incident. Wen said that the court had taken note of Lee's findings.
During previous hearings, military personnel and heads of police departments had also testified that stricter security measures implemented following the incident did not deprive members of the military or the police forces of the ability to vote, as the pan-blue camp had alleged.
The pan-blue camp finally claimed that the pan-green camp had improperly manipulated voters into supporting Chen. Wen said no evidence had been presented to the court proving that the pan-green camp had done this.
The plaintiffs and defendants are allowed to appeal within 20 days of receiving the verdict from the court.
Defense counsel Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said he hoped that the plaintiff would respect the decision by the court.
"This [the lawsuit] was what they wanted. Now here is the result. I hope that they [the pan-blue camp] can face the facts and respect the legal outcome," Koo said.
Pan-blue lawyer Lee Tsung-teh (
Outside the high court, no more than 200 to 250 pan-blue supporters protested. Nearly 400 police officers from the Taipei City Police Department's Chungcheng First Precinct helped the court's security service maintain public order. No injuries or arrests were reported.
However, a number of pan-blue candidates for next month's legislative elections took advantage of yesterday's verdict to seek more voter support.
The judges also ruled that the pan-blue camp would have to pay expenses for the case, estimated to be more than NT$70 million. But the court said that the exact figure had not been calculated.
The verdict of a second lawsuit, including the allegation that Chen used the referendum to unfairly influence the result of the election, and that the election should have been postponed following the assassination attempt, is pending.
Correspondents with newspapers, TV stations and wire agencies from the US, UK, Japan, France and Russia covered the events as they unfolded.
Also See Stories
Pan-blues urged to accept ruling
Blue camp still defiant after High Court ruling
Taiwan should learn from US' democracy
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
RSS