Although they did not submit any new evidence yesterday, the pan-blue alliance's attorneys said that the Central Election Commission (CEC) had failed to carry out its duties to maintain a fair and clean election, and demanded that the presidential election be rendered invalid.
The argument by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) alliance's attorneys was not strong enough to persuade the judges, and Taiwan High Court presiding judge Cheng Ya-ping (
PHOTO: LO PEI-TEH, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee Tsung-teh (
The lawyer was apparently referring to the March 19 attempt to assassinate President Chen Shui-bian (
"The evidence we collected showed that many voters decided not to vote or voted for Chen and Lu after the shooting," said Lee. "Under these kinds of circumstances, the CEC should have suspended the election until investigators closed the case."
The evidence mentioned by Lee includes a questionnaire conducted by the National Policy Foundation (
Lee's argument was immediately rebutted by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) defense counsel Johnson Chuang (
"KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said we shall carry on with the election when he was interviewed on TV after the shooting took place," said Chuang. "Your Honor, what I said is verifiable if you ask for the video footage from any of local TV stations. Why is it that they are complaining the election should have been suspended now? It is ironic, isn't it?"
Huang Chao-yuan (黃昭元), a National Taiwan University law professor and a CEC member said that the alliance's complaint is illogical.
"The CEC is only authorized to suspend an election when the candidate is dead. While they [the plaintiffs] are complaining that we did not `do something,' does that mean the CEC's authorization should be expanded?" said Huang. "The CEC is a government office which is supposed to stay neutral under all kinds circumstances, no?"
Article 17, Section 1 of the Referendum Law (
According to the article, the referendum shall be carried out if the president proposes it and the Cabinet approves, if the issue concerns national defense.
Other than issues of national defense, a referendum can be carried out with an endorsement of 5 percent of registered voters and an approval by the Legislature's referendum evaluation committee.
"This is extremely unfair to the alliance's candidates," said Lee.
Before Lee finished his argument over the article, Cheng immediately rebutted by asking, "Excuse me, but, isn't the current Referendum Law the version which was passed by KMT and PFP lawmakers? If so, why are you complaining about something that was passed by your own lawmakers?" the judge asked.
Yesterday's four-hour debate did not result in any conclusion, and Cheng did not announce the next hearing date.
The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is to tighten rules for candidates running for public office, requiring them to declare that they do not hold a Chinese household registration or passport, and that they possess no other foreign citizenship. The requirement was set out in a draft amendment to the Enforcement Rules of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法 ) released by the ministry on Thursday. Under the proposal, candidates would need to make the declaration when submitting their registration forms, which would be published in the official election bulletin. The move follows the removal of several elected officials who were
FOUR DESIGNATED AREAS: Notices were issued for live-fire exercises in waters south and northwest of Penghu, northeast of Keelung and west of Kaohsiung, they said The military is planning three major annual exercises across the army, navy and air force this month, with the navy’s “Hai Chiang” (海強, “Sea Strong”) drills running from today through Friday, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The Hai Chiang exercise, which is to take place in waters surrounding Taiwan, would feature P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and S-70C anti-submarine helicopters, the ministry said, adding that the drills aim to bolster the nation’s offshore defensive capabilities. China has intensified military and psychological pressure against Taiwan, repeatedly sending warplanes and vessels into areas near the nation’s air defense identification zone and across
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SENATE RECOMMENDATION: The National Defense Authorization Act encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s navy to participate in the exercises in Hawaii The US Senate on Thursday last week passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, which strongly encourages the US secretary of defense to invite Taiwan’s naval forces to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, as well as allocating military aid of US$1 billion for Taiwan. The bill, which authorizes appropriations for the military activities of the US Department of Defense, military construction and other purposes, passed with 77 votes in support and 20 against. While the NDAA authorizes about US$925 billion of defense spending, the Central News Agency yesterday reported that an aide of US
RSS