Opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) last night asked to meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to present his appeals in person.
The Presidential Office responded by saying that it had received no official request from pan-blue politicians to meet Chen.
Lien's appeals include demanding a special medical task force and a special criminal task force to examine Chen's gunshot wound and an immediate recount of Saturday's vote, which Lien lost by less than 30,000 votes.
"On behalf of the people, Taiwan's democracy and the security of society as well as clean politics for the country, we would like to meet the president," Lien said in English at a press conference last night held jointly with his running mate, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), at the KMT's headquarters in Taipei.
"An unprecedented controversy has derived from this election; it is a question of legality and legitimacy of the government. To take on a shun-away attitude would prompt the people to question that, as if the country's authority has been stolen," Lien said.
"It has been three days," he added, "and the leader of the nation should come forward, face the issue and solve it with a crystal-clear attitude."
In reaction to Lien and Soong's request to meet with Chen, Presidential Office Spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said that the Presidential Office had not received a request from Lien and Soong and that a representative could be sent to discuss the issue with the president's staff.
"The Presidential Office only learned that Lien and Soong wished to meet with the president through media reports today and have yet to receive any substantial request. If they do wish to see the president, they may send a representative to meet with the president's staff to discuss this arrangement further," Huang said.
Earlier, Soong demanded a credible group that transcended party lines be formed to carry out a recount of the ballots.
"We demand the establishment of a credible coalition that transcends party lines to undertake the recount right away," Soong said.
Saying that all polls taken in the last two days prior to the election had suggested that the alliance ticket would win, Soong once again questioned the attack on Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
"All of a sudden everything was turned around because of a mysterious shooting that happened on the eve of the election," Soong said.
"We want Chen's wound to be examined by the credible coalition as well," Soong said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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