Mon, Mar 22, 2004 page3

• Pan-blue protest reminiscent of 2000 riot

  • By Huang Tai-lin / STAFF REPORTER
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  To many, the massive gathering of angry pan-blue supporters in front of the Presidential Office was deja vu all over again.

  Four years ago on the night of the 2000 election when the electoral result showed that the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) presidential candidate Lien Chan (連戰) had lost the election to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) thus ending the KMT's long rule over Taiwan, livid pan-blue protesters besieged the KMT headquarters in Taipei demanding that its then-chairman Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) step down.

  Chen won the 2000 presidential election with 39 percent of the vote while Lien, the KMT's candidate, came a distance third with 23 percent, lagging behind People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who ran his own maverick campaign that collected 36 percent.

  Accusing Lee of failing to campaign wholeheartedly for Lien, a riot erupted with security forces using water cannon to scatter protesters.

  Lien and Soong, however, had by then conceded defeat and acknowledged Chen's election victory.

  After Saturday's election, hundreds of pan-blue supporters were seen again in front of the Presidential Office after learning their supporting pan-blue presidential candidate, Lien, who had this time joined forces with his former foe, Soong, had lost to Chen's re-election bid by a razor-thin margin of less than 30,000 votes.

  Citing the high number of invalid votes and many unanswered questions related to the shooting of Chen on the eve of Saturday's vote, Lien refused to concede defeat but called into question the fairness of the election and demanded a recount.

  Four years ago when Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who, in his capacity as Taipei mayor, came to the site and addressed the people, he was hit with eggs thrown by angry protesters.

  In the early hours of Sunday morning, Taipei Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) encountered an angry protester who threw a water bottle at him. The water bottle was blocked by Ou's personal guard.

  PFP Legislator Diana Lee (李慶安) said that no parallel line should be drawn between the two events.

  "The event four years ago was aimed at Lee [Teng-hui] in addition to the party's split," said the legislator, whose party was founded by Soong after his 2000 election bid failed.

  "This time around, the cause for the protest and mass demonstration was a result of supporters' anger and complaints over the fairness of the election," she said.

  In view of some analysts comments, who said that Lien's decision this time to refuse to concede defeat but instead to seek legal action to have Saturday night's electoral result and his opponents' elected status declared invalid suggested that Lien, 68, is putting the future of the KMT-PFP alliance on the gambling table, Emile Sheng (盛治仁), a professor of political science at Soochow University, suggested that such comments derived from the notion that Lien is a sore loser.

  "I think the best way now, since the whole matter is already in the legal procedure, should then let it be that way and not to attach too much political interpretation on it," Sheng said.
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