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Vice president urges revision of election code

Vice President Annette Lu shows the scar on her right knee from the March 19, 2004, assassination attempt on her and President Chen Shui-bian, in Taipei County, yesterday. PHOTO: WU CHIA-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged a speedy revision to election laws after forensic expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺) said she was the prime target of the election-eve assassination attempt on her life and that of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

"With the amendment of the law, the safety of the presidential and vice presidential candidates and electoral fairness can be ensured," she told reporters in Taipei County yesterday morning.

The President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法) stipulates that the Central Election Commission should halt presidential campaigns and reschedule the vote should a presidential candidate die at any point between registering their candidacy and election day.

Lu wants this provision to be extended to vice presidential candidates.

On March 19, 2004, bullets grazed Chen's stomach and hit Lu's knee when as the pair were campaigning in Tainan.

Opposition parties claim the assassination bid was staged to win sympathy votes for the pair.

Prosecutors closed the investigation into the shooting in August 2005, concluding that a dead construction worker, Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), who was filmed standing near the shooting scene, was entirely responsible.

Lu urged Lee yesterday to offer a clearer account on his theory or his views could affect the election.

"It is not a good idea to say such things at the moment," she said. "He should be clearer about what he meant. It is not a good idea to leave everybody in confusion."

When approached for comment, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), said the vice president once complained to him in private that "she was the real victim" of the shooting.

He did not elaborate.

When approached by reporters, KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) alleged that the president would have benefited if the vice president had been assassinated.

"What Lee told us through his expertise was that the shooting was staged and premeditated. It was never as simple as the action of Chen Yi-hsiung alone," Lai said.

Lai also urged the vice president to ask for new probe into the case.

Later yesterday, Judy Cheng (程曉桂), head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau's Forensic Identification Division, quoted Lee as saying that local media had misinterpreted his comments.

Lee was quoted by Cheng as saying that what he meant was that the shooter shot the vice president, adding that what he said matched the conclusions of his previous forensic report on the case.

Lee said he could not infer that Lu was the main target of the shooter from traces left at the scene.

Additional reporting by Flora Wang and staff writer
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