Security tightened before recall vote

Appeal for calm

DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday urged the KMT and the PFP to accept the results of today's recall vote rationally and also expressed hope that DPP supporters would remain calm as well.

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), which opposed the recall, said that TSU legislators will receive their ballots and then cast invalid votes.

"TSU legislators will not waive their legislative rights and therefore we choose to cast invalid votes," TSU Chairman Shu Ching-chiang (蘇進強) said yesterday. "Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) also agreed that casting invalid votes is a manner of expressing a standpoint."

Shu made the remarks yesterday afternoon after he met with Lee at Lee's residence.

Shu said that Lee did not think the reasons given by the opposition for recalling the president were legitimate, but Lee also pointed out that both the pan-blue and pan-green camps were irrational.

"Lee thinks that the pan-blue camp has the right to propose a recall motion, but the timing is not right. Legal problems should be solved through a judicial process, according to him," Shu said.

Shu said that the party would decide this morning whether to cast blank votes or write "waiver" on the ballots to invalidate them.

Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said that the recall motion was doomed to fail. He predicted that the pan-blue camp will split after today's vote, which would split society as well.

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