Pan-blue camp lawyers yesterday conceded that the vote recount would not give them victory, but hoped that the courts would call new polls because of fraud they claim was committed as part of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Chen beat Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Lien said the shooting may have been staged to win sympathy votes and has filed two lawsuits to overturn Chen's victory and seek a new election.
"We have absolute confidence in the job we are doing and we will let the numbers speak for themselves and let the court make a final decision," pan-blue lawyer Lee Tsung-teh (
The lawyers said a vote recount completed in May had narrowed the difference to 21,863, with 40,327 disputed ballots awaiting a final ruling by the High Court, expected by September.
The High Court has called lawyers from both sides to a meeting this Monday to discuss the lawsuit seeking to nullify Chen's victory, and to set a hearing for the second suit, which seeks a new poll, for next Friday.
The opposition lawyers said that the disputed votes alone would not be enough to reverse the outcome, but added that they had found nearly 20,000 ballots that did not match voter registration lists, suggesting fraud.
"There were what we classified as ghost ballots, lost ballots and stolen ballots," lawyer Jaclyn Tsai told a news conference.
In many cases, the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters, the lawyers said. They said that various other irregularities had been found in 99 percent of voting booths.
"People should be able to trust the outcome of the election. But so many things went wrong in this election," Tsai said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the recount has not found signs of vote-rigging and that the outcome would not be reversed.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS