Former defense minister Tang Yao-min (湯曜明) testified yesterday that it is routine for the military to raise combat readiness during a presidential election, denying that the measure was only adopted after the election-eve shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Tang was testifying at a hearing of the Taiwan High Court that was called as part of a lawsuit filed by the opposition pan-blue alliance of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party to challenge the results of the March 20 presidential election.
The alliance claims that the activation of the "national security mechanism" in the wake of the March 19 shooting was one of the reasons leading to their narrow defeat in the presidential election.
According to the alliance, many military servicemen and police officers, most of whom, the alliance claims are pan-blue supporters, were unable to vote in the election because of the mechanism's activation.
In his testimony, Tang said that since August 1993, the military has made it a routine to raise combat readiness during National Day, presidential elections and Lunar New Year holidays.
While combat readiness was increased from 5pm on March 19 to 8am on March 21 during this year's presidential election, the measure remained unchanged after the shooting and no additional military servicemen were recalled because of the shooting, Tang said.
He said the military servicemen arranged their shifts in accordance with combat readiness requirements one month before the election. He said servicemen on duty are not allowed to leave their posts, which he said is a universal rule applicable not only to the election.
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