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Hsieh shows support for Chen Chu

Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh presents flowers to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu at the Kaohsiung City Government yesterday in a show of support for her appeal to the Taiwan High Court over the annulment of last December's mayoral election result. PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that the result of Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu's (陳菊) appeal to the Taiwan High Court over the annulment of her election was bound to favor the mayor.

"The election lawsuit ruling was flawed because one of the judges publicly opposed the verdict," Hsieh said when meeting Chen at the Kaohsiung City Hall yesterday morning.

Hsieh said an annulment lawsuit was a complicated matter to begin with and this was especially true in this case, given that the judge expressed his doubts about the ruling's legality in a six-page footnote attached to the ruling.

Hsieh said election lawsuits are highly political and therefore judges should respect the will of the people rather than reach a verdict in a "sloppy" manner.

"Judges should consider the will of the majority of the public and carefully evaluate if their ruling may contribute to conflicts among the people," he said. "They should not focus solely on certain clauses or even misinterpret the clauses to satisfy their own ideology."

Hsieh's visit to Chen came one day after 46 DPP legislators voiced their support for her in Kaohsiung.

Chen has said she would appeal the verdict to fight for "justice." She said she could not accept that last December's poll result was annulled because a vote-buying accusation made by her camp on the eve of the election had hurt her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英).

Chen said yesterday that her campaign had not been in the wrong when it held the press conference on election eve to publicize what it said was evidence of vote-buying even though candidates were barred from campaigning at that point in time.
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