Taipei election "unfair"

Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party filed lawsuits across the island yesterday demanding a recount in a presidential election won by President Chen Shui-bian with a razor-thin margin.

Minutes after Chen won the narrowest of victories yesterday, a day after he was shot by a would-be assassin, opposition candidate Lien Chan said the poll was unfair, the shooting had robbed him of victory, and demanded the election be declared invalid.

"We want to raise a motion to declare the election invalid," Lien, head of the Nationalist Party, told a cheering crowd at his campaign headquarters after an acrimonious campaign in which relations with arch-foe China and the issue of Taiwan's ambiguous identity took centre-stage.

Chen won by just 29,158 votes out of more than 12.9 million cast, taking 50.11 per cent against 49.89 per cent for Lien. The number of invalid votes was 337,297, more than 11 times Chen's margin of victory, the election commission said.

Hundreds of supporters marched to high courts in the island's major cities, including Taipei, central Taichung and southern Kaohsiung, to file lawsuits. The court houses were surrounded by riot police carrying shields.

Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said it understood the opposition's disappointment and called for calm.

Lien said details of the assassination attempt on Chen while campaigning on the eve of the vote needed to be clarified, but did not say who he suspected of involvement.

Police have made no arrest since assailants fired at least two shots at Chen and his running mate, Vice President Annette Lu.

"Up to now, we have not had a clear explanation of the truth of (Friday's) shooting," Lien said.

"Its impact on this election needs no words, and its impact was direct. The doubts surrounding it give us one common impression - this is an unfair election."

He had harsh words for Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party.

"They have taken too, too many actions that are unacceptable, there are too many suspicions. Not one, but a series of actions that have created a cloud of suspicion," he said in reference to the shooting.