A three-day ballot recount in Taoyuan, which concluded yesterday, upheld a narrow victory for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) in the city’s fourth electoral district, leaving Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) in second.
According to media reports, Cheng’s lead was tallied at 162 votes, slightly less than the 169 declared on Jan. 16, though the Central Electoral Commission had yet to announce the results formally as of press time last night.
On Jan. 16, Cheng was declared victorious, with a 169-vote margin over the incumbant, after a dramatic evening of vote counting that seesawed into the night, during which Yang’s campaign headquarters prematurely declared victory because its poll watcher erroneously reported a 30-vote lead by Yang.
The next day, Yang filed for a recount with the Taoyuan District Court and the court granted her request.
The court initiated the recount on Monday, dispatching 20 judges in teams to the district’s 169 polling stations, and the candidates each sent 20 lawyers to supervise the proceedings and to contest calls the judges made.
After the recount results were released, Cheng went to the court to thank his supporters.
“[The result showed] my victory is a legitimate one, and [my rival], who lost the election, should have nothing to complain about anymore,” he said. “The first thing I will do when I get into the Legislative Yuan is to push for bigger budgets for Taoyuan.”
Yang conceded her defeat and offered her best wishes to Cheng, while apologizing to supporters, saying that she had not worked hard enough to win re-election.
It was reported that on Monday, Cheng’s lead over Yang was temporarily reduced by about 10 votes, a marginal quantity that was mostly due to revised rulings on ballot validity made by the judges, and the discovery of tallying errors, but fell short of the amount needed to alter the outcome.
Subsequent tallies from Tuesday and Wednesday also failed to reveal significant errors or discrepancies.
The Taoyuan District Court also granted a request for a vote recount in Taoyuan’s third electoral district, filed by DPP legislative candidate Hsu Ching-wen (徐景文) to contest the victory of KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖), who won re-election by a margin of 390 votes.
Recounting there is scheduled to begin today.
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