Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged a speedy revision to election laws after forensic expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺) said she was the prime target of the election-eve assassination attempt on her life and that of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
"With the amendment of the law, the safety of the presidential and vice presidential candidates and electoral fairness can be ensured," she told reporters in Taipei County yesterday morning.
The President and Vice President Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法) stipulates that the Central Election Commission should halt presidential campaigns and reschedule the vote should a presidential candidate die at any point between registering their candidacy and election day.
PHOTO: WU CHIA-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
Lu wants this provision to be extended to vice presidential candidates.
On March 19, 2004, bullets grazed Chen's stomach and hit Lu's knee when as the pair were campaigning in Tainan.
Opposition parties claim the assassination bid was staged to win sympathy votes for the pair.
Prosecutors closed the investigation into the shooting in August 2005, concluding that a dead construction worker, Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), who was filmed standing near the shooting scene, was entirely responsible.
Lu urged Lee yesterday to offer a clearer account on his theory or his views could affect the election.
"It is not a good idea to say such things at the moment," she said. "He should be clearer about what he meant. It is not a good idea to leave everybody in confusion."
When approached for comment, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), said the vice president once complained to him in private that "she was the real victim" of the shooting.
He did not elaborate.
When approached by reporters, KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
"What Lee told us through his expertise was that the shooting was staged and premeditated. It was never as simple as the action of Chen Yi-hsiung alone," Lai said.
Lai also urged the vice president to ask for new probe into the case.
Later yesterday, Judy Cheng (
Lee was quoted by Cheng as saying that what he meant was that the shooter shot the vice president, adding that what he said matched the conclusions of his previous forensic report on the case.
Lee said he could not infer that Lu was the main target of the shooter from traces left at the scene.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang and staff writer
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS