The Taiwan High Court yesterday threw out the second of the pan-blue lawsuits seeking to annul the result of the March 20 presidential election.
"The lawsuit is overruled," said presiding judge Cheng Ya-ping (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The High Court rejected the pan-blue legal team's claim that there were more than 900,000 ballots which had been illegally distributed in polling stations.
"After double-checking by the plaintiff's and the defendant's legal teams, only some 3,700 defective ballots were identified, which did not affect the election result," said the ruling.
According to the Central Election Commission's (CEC) announcement on March 20, President Chen Shui-bian (
But according to the ruling by the Taiwan High Court over another lawsuit filed by the KMT and PFP to nullify the election result through a recount of the ballots, Chen and Lu's margin of victory was reduced to 25,563 votes.
Regarding the pan-blue legal team's claim that the CEC's holding of a referendum simultaneously with the presidential election was illegal, the High Court said that before a constitutional interpretation was given over the controversy, the CEC was simply an administrative agency, which organized elections on instructions from the government.
The court also threw out the claim that a referendum held simultaneously with the presidential election violated the principle of a secret ballot.
"The KMT and PFP argued that whether voters had picked referendum ballots revealed which ticket they might have voted for. In fact, voters' refusal to pick up referendum ballots resulted from the pan-blue camp's call to boycott the referendum, which had nothing to do with the polling stations' design of a U-shaped line of movement. Therefore, one cannot say a referendum held simultaneously with the election violated the principle of the secret ballot," the ruling said.
The judges also did not agree with the pan-blue camp's claim that the national security mechanism triggered by the assassination attempt targeting Chen and Lu on March 19 had an impact on the election result in favor of the Chen-Lu ticket.
"Since no evidence shows the mechanism increased the number of military and police personnel on alert, therefore resulting in their failure to vote, one cannot say the mechanism affected the election result," according to the ruling.
In response to the ruling, the Presidential Office yesterday stated its respect for the Taiwan High Court's ruling. Calling on the public to also respect the court's verdict, the Presidential Office added that it hoped both the ruling and the opposition parties could work together for the good of national development and the people's welfare.
Attorney Chang Shi-hsing (
"As for some election process defects, [the CEC] still has room to improve. But [the verdict] also shows not a single CEC election official was involved in cheating" Chang said.
Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (
"Political confrontation since the March presidential election has taken a toll in social costs and the progress of legislation," Chen said.
"For the sake of the nation's competitiveness, I'm calling on opposition parties to put an end to political differences and work with the ruling party, with the public interest in mind, to pass as many priority bills as possible before the legislative session concludes in January," he said.
The pan-blue camp filed two lawsuit, with one to annul the election result and another to annul the election process, immediately after the March 20 election, as Lien and Soong refused to concede.
On Nov. 4, the High Court ruled in favor of Chen and Lu in the first lawsuit, in which the KMT and PFP argued the court should suspend Chen and Lu's re-election victory.
Hundreds of pan-blue supporters yesterday staged protests outside the court and minor clashes occurred between the crowds and some 200 policemen who had been brought in by the authorities to maintain order.
Also see story:
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS