Taipei, Mar 21: Taiwan's high court sealed ballot boxes Sunday after thousands of supporters of defeated presidential contender Lien Chan staged a sit-in to demand a recount in the island's closest such election in its history.
Incumbent Chen Shui-bian won Saturday's election, a day after he was shot and wounded by a would-be assassin. Opponent Lien Chan swiftly called for a recount, saying that more than 330,000 votes had been ruled invalid and demanding answers to the many unanswered questions after Friday's mysterious shooting.
Violent protests erupted in several major cities when Lien supporters tried to force their way through police cordons and into local court offices to demand an immediate recount.
A Taiwan high court official said on Sunday that all ballot boxes from 13,000 polling stations would be sealed to preserve the evidence. He did not say if a recount would be held.
"It will be difficult to have an immediate recount. A recount has to decided by a judge and we have yet to assign a judge to handle the case," the court spokesman said, adding that a judge was selected by computer.
As the vote count wound up late on Sunday, and news spread of Chen's wafer-thin victory margin, Lien flatly refused to concede defeat.
Quivering with fury, the opposition candidate told cheering supporters that invalid ballots had numbered 337,297, almost triple the 122,278 rejected in 2000 and 11 times Chen's margin of victory.
The drama of Chen's re-election was manifest in his win by just over 29,000 votes, or 0.2 percent, out of 12.9 million cast and by the failure of his referendum on boosting defenses against China that had been the linchpin of his campaign.
Some 20,000 Lien supporters staged an all-night sit-in at the gate of the presidential palace in the heart of Taipei, facing hundreds of armed and helmeted riot police lined up behind barbed wire barricades and backed by water cannon.
"Examine the ballots, examine the ballots," shouted the crowd as they sat in the square in front of the office.
"A-bian step down!" they shouted, using Chen's nickname.
Bureau Report
