The main opposition party in Taiwan Sunday contested its
candidate's razor-thin defeat in the weekend mayoral election in
the island's second largest city of Kaohsiung. ?
Huang Jun-yin of the Kuomintang said he'd requested a re-count
of the nearly 800,000 votes cast in the southern industrial city.
Huang lost by just 1,114 votes to the ruling Democratic Progressive
Party's (DPP) Chen Chu.
The Kaohsiung District Court has sealed ballot boxes from all of
the city's 839 polling stations to prepare for a re-count, judge
Chen Chia-hui said. He didn't say when the re-count would
begin.
Huang also accused the ruling DPP of violating election law by
making a false accusation against him on the eve of the election.
He may file another suit to nullify the election results, Huang
said.
The DPP accused Huang's campaign workers of handing envelopes
containing NT$1,000 (US$31) to people on a bus returning from his
final election rally. This accusation was repeatedly aired by
several pro-DPP cable news stations on Saturday.
"This was a vote short on justice or fairness," Huang said.
In Taipei, the KMT's Hau Lung-bin, defeated the DPP's Frank
Hsieh. But Hsieh's showing as he garnered almost 41 percent of the
vote was far better than DPP expectations.
The two mayoral elections had been seen by many as a referendum
on "president" Chen Shui-bian's corruption tainted rule but the
relatively satisfactory election results could take pressure off
the leader.
On November 3 prosecutors indicted Chen's wife and three former
aides on charges of embezzling 14.8 million New Taiwan dollars
(US$450,000) from a special fund under "presidential" control. They
said Chen could face the same charges when his "presidential"
immunity from prosecution lapses after his term ends in May
2008.
Taiwan's opposition People First Party Chairman, James Soong,
who ran as an independent candidate in the Taipei polls, announced
on Saturday he'll retire from politics after receiving 53,281 votes
or 4.1 percent of the total. Soong said he would accept the choice
of Taipei's people and retire from politics. Although his votes
ranked third Soong fell far behind Hau and Hsieh. He conceded
defeat before the last votes were counted.
(China Daily December 11, 2006)