High Court decision adds legitimacy to Chen Shui-bian's narrow election win
Taiwan's High Court yesterday ruled against an opposition lawsuit seeking to annul the result of the bitterly disputed March 20 presidential elections.
'The lawsuit filed by the plaintiff is rejected. For this, the plaintiff must pay for the court fees,' court spokesman Wen Yao-yuan said of the verdict in the case filed by the opposition Kuomintang-People First Party alliance.
The decision also added legitimacy to the narrow victory of President Chen Shui-bian, who won office by a margin of 0.22 per cent. The High Court has yet to rule on a second lawsuit, which seeks to call a fresh election.
Mr Wen said a re-examination of the ballots by the court showed that Mr Chen had still won by about 25,000 votes, 4,000 less than the original result.
The plaintiff, the KMT's Lien Chan and the PFP's James Soong Chu-yu, claimed the mysterious election-eve shooting of Mr Chen and his running mate, Vice-President Annette Lu Hsiu-lien, was staged by the president to win sympathy votes as the two were only injured slightly.
They also claimed that thousands of police and soldiers had been unable to vote because the authorities put them on special alert after the shooting.