Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) yesterday filed a lawsuit to invalidate the Nov. 24 Taipei mayoral election, saying voting irregularities were discovered during a recount of the ballots.
Ting said in a statement that during the recount, which began on Monday last week and ended yesterday afternoon, he discovered “far too many” electoral oversights and vote-collecting malpractices.
“The chaos seen in the election has severely undermined Taiwan’s image as a democracy. In particular, members of the Central Election Commission [CEC] and the Taipei City Election Commission [TCEC] failed to act when they should have, seriously impairing the rights of candidates and voters,” Ting said.
He is also “carefully considering” taking legal action against the commissions to hold them accountable for the issues and have them pay for the recount and other election-related expenses in accordance with the State Compensation Act (國家賠償法) and the Civil Code, he said.
Ting paid a deposit of NT$4.28 million (US$138,136) for the recount after he was defeated by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) by a margin of 3,254 votes.
Ting cited voting irregularities when demanding a recount, saying some voters were still waiting to cast their ballots at some polling stations after vote counting had begun elsewhere, allowing the voters to view the early results before they voted.
According to Article 69 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a deposit is only returned if the recount changes the original result.
The Taipei District Court is expected to announce the recount results today.
Ting said that as the election underscored several problems — such as the age limits on voters in elections (20 years) and referendums (18 years), and the short voting hours — he hopes that lawmakers across party lines will work to prevent similar disorganization from recurring.
Ting, who has served seven terms as a legislator since 1990, had set the office of Taipei mayor as the final destination of his political career.
He had succeeded in securing the KMT’s nomination as its Taipei mayoral candidate after four failed attempts.
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