Incumbent President Chen Shui-bian (
But the nation's first-ever referendum failed to get the number of voters necessary to make the result valid. Only 45.17 percent of eligible voters took part. The Referendum Law (
Voting, which took place from 8am to 4pm was peaceful with no major incidents reported, and only a few isolated cases of the electoral laws being broken.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Some 13,251,719 people voted in the presidential election, a turnout of 80.28 percent of the 16,507,179 eligible voters.
The DPP candidates won 6,471,970 votes, or 50.11 percent of the total cast, while Lien and Soong got 6,442,452 or 49.89 percent. Invalid votes totaled 337,297, representing 2.5 percent of the those cast.
Speaking before an angry crowd in front of the pan-blue camp's election campaign headquarters in Taipei, Lien refused to concede defeat and said the alliance would file a lawsuit against the result announced by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), claiming the election was invalid and demanding the result should be annulled.
"Such a thin margin is the result of the uncertainties left by yesterday's gunshots the truth of which has yet to be clarified," Lien said.
"It was an unfair election," said Lien angrily. "Therefore, we will file a lawsuit against the election result. We demand the CEC seal all ballot boxes nationwide immediately and wait for the authorities to recount the ballots."
"Prepare to annul the election," he told the frenzied crowd.
Chen and Lu were shot while greeting supporters on a jeep in Tainan City on Friday. The police are looking for a 170 cm-tall man aged about 40 whom they suspect fired the shots.
Chen suffered an 11cm-long and 2cm-wide wound on his belly and had 14 stitches, while Lu was shot in her right knee.
The National Police Administration has offered a NT$10 million award for information that leads to breaking the case. The Lien-Soong campaign headquarters has offered another NT$10 million, while the Tainan City Government has offered NT$3 million.
CEC Chairman George Huang (
"I hereby announce that Mr. Chen Shui-bian and Ms. Annette Lu have won the election," Huang said.
When asked if the CEC would overturn the result since Lien had vowed a lawsuit against it, Huang said: "They [the pan-blues] have to follow the regulations as laid down by the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law" (
According to this law, the pan-blue camp has to file its lawsuit with the Administrative Supreme Court (
In his victory speech, Chen told tens of thousands of supporters gathered in front of the DPP campaign headquarters in Taipei that it was not a personal or party victory but a victory for all Taiwan's 23 million people.
"We will stick to our belief in uniting ethnic groups, believing in Taiwan, and insisting on continuous reform," Chen said.
"We also hope Beijing will look at the presidential election result and the referendum turnout rationally and thereby accept the Taiwanese people's choice in order to create peace and stability across the Strait," Chen said.
The CEC also organized a referendum simultaneously with the presidential election in the same polling stations.
In the referendum, voters were asked to vote yes or no on two questions:
First: The Taiwan people demand that the cross-strait issue be resolved through peaceful means. Should mainland China refuse to dismantle the missiles targeting Taiwan and to openly renounce the use of force against us, do you agree that the government should purchase more advanced anti-missile weapons to strengthen Taiwan's self-defense capabilities?
Second: Do you agree that our government should undertake negotiations with mainland China on the basis of a "peace and stability" framework for cross-strait interactions in order to build consensus and for the welfare of the peoples of both sides?
On the first question, 7,452,340 people picked up the ballots, representing 45.17 percent of the eligible, with 359,711 invalid ballots.
Among the valid ballots, 6,511,216 people voted yes, while 581,413 voted no.
On the second question, 7,444,148 ballots were cast, representing 45.12 percent of eligible voters, with 578,574 invalid.
Of the valid ballots, 6,319,663 voted yes, and 545,911 no.
Walking slowly into a polling station in Taipei with dozens of armed guards surrounding him yesterday, Chen, along with his wife Wu Shu-chen (
On the pan-blue side, which had an official policy of not voting in the referendum, Lien did not pick up the referendum ballot papers.
"The target of the bullets were not specific persons, but democracy," Lien said, "but I believe the Taiwan people won't let the incident, whose real cause has yet to be found out, influence the election."
Soong did not pick up the referendum ballots, either, in yesterday's polling while Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
As of press time yesterday, China remained silent about Chen's victory.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman reportedly declined to comment, only referring all queries to the Taiwan Affairs Office.
That office had no immediate comment, though one official reportedly said they were watching the election closely on television and officials were holding a closed-door meeting late into the night to decide how to respond.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘NOT SUBORDINATE’: Only Taiwanese can decide the nation’s future, and people preserving their democratic way of life is not a provocation, President William Lai said Taiwan does not want China’s “one country, two systems,” and must uphold its freedom and democracy as well as resolve to defend itself, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, rejecting Beijing’s latest bid to bring the country under Chinese control. The president made the remarks while attending a commissioning ceremony for Taiwan’s first battalion of M1A2T Abrams tanks in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口). The tanks are made by General Dynamics, a major US defense contractor. China this week said it “absolutely will not” rule out using force over Taiwan, striking a much tougher tone than a series of articles in state media
RSS