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Election fallout: US stops short of congratulating KMT after election

The US on Saturday congratulated the people of Taiwan for holding successful Legislative Yuan elections, but stopped short of congratulating the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for its victory, in a brief statement issued some hours after the results were announced in Taipei.

In a largely boilerplate statement that echoed similar comments issued after previous elections, the State Department said, "The United States congratulates the people of Taiwan for a successful and democratic election, and we are looking forward to the continued close and unofficial relationship with Taiwan."

The department made no comment on the two referendums that failed to gain approval, but sources said that the administration must be pleased that they failed, in view of Washington's hostility to the planned presidential election-day referendum on entry into the UN under the name Taiwan.

The administration "must be rubbing their hands with some glee" that the two referendums drew less than the 50 percent participation rate needed for adoption, one source speculated.

The feeling is that the failure of the referendums, which repeated the experience of the two national security referendums in 2004, might presage a similar fate for the UN referendum.

The referendum plan has soured relations between the US administration and President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) government over the past year.

One observer noted the significance of the phrase, "continued close" relations, used by the State Department.
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