The Changhua District Court yesterday approved Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative candidate Chen Chin-ting’s (陳進丁) application for a ballot recount.
Chen lost the legislative election in Changhua County’s first district on Saturday by a narrow margin.
While the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) received 63,084 votes, Chen had 62,664 votes, losing by 420 ballots.
On Saturday night, Chen applied to the district court for a ballot recount. Judge Kang Bi-zhou (康弼周) approved the application and early yesterday morning went to the county’s election committee to seize all ballots and voters’ lists in the first district.
Wu Shu-ling (吳淑玲), the spokesperson of the county’s election committee, said that under Article 69 of the Election and Recall Act (選舉罷免法), if a winner’s vote count in a legislative election is within 3/1,000 of the vote count for the runner up, the second-place candidate may apply for a ballot recount. The article also stipulates that the district court must complete the recount within 20 days after approving an application.
Chen said as many as 2,895 ballots were invalidated in his election district.
“In Lugang Township (鹿港), there were more than 800 invalidated ballots, which is very strange,” Chen said.
Wang responded by saying that she respected the legal process.
Meanwhile, in Chiayi County’s first district, DPP legislative -candidate Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) lost the election by 895 ballots. Tsai’s rival, Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) of the KMT, garnered 73,481 ballots, while Tsai received 72,586 votes.
Tsai said yesterday he would file a lawsuit to invalidate Wong’s win.
“I will ask for a ballot recount and also ask the court to investigate whether Wong conducted vote-buying in the campaign,” Tsai said. “The election is not over.”
Wong refused to comment, except to say: “This is his business.”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard