10,000 demand Taiwan election recount

A court in Taiwan today ordered that all ballot boxes be sealed but 10,000 protesters demanded a recount of Chen Shui-bian’s re-election amid claims it was marred by voting irregularities and a mysterious shooting that wounded the president.

The High Court said it was sealing the boxes to preserve evidence but did not immediately order a recount as demanded by challenger Lien Chan.

The opposition also said it would seek to nullify Chen’s narrow victory, arguing he unfairly received sympathy votes because of the election-eve shooting and that the attack remained unexplained.

Several hundred demonstrators outside the Presidential Office in Taipei cheered news of the ballot-sealing order, but tempers soon rose again and the crowd swelled, waving flags and demanding an immediate recount. Police estimated 10,000 people had turned out.

Confronted with doubts about the shooting, Chen’s office released photographs today that showed him being treated for a wound to the stomach.

They showed Chen being treated on an operating table but not seriously hurt. In one frame he is talking on a mobile phone while doctors are working on him.

Earlier pictures released to the media showed a long red gash on Chen’s stomach, apparently the wound from a bullet that grazed him.

Presidential Office spokesman James Huang said pictures were released to stop speculation that the injury was faked.

“Some people said we faked this, that the pictures we released earlier only showed a belly,” Huang told reporters. “If we wanted to use the incident to influence the election, we could have made these pictures public then to win sympathy. We did not because we didn’t want to spark an outcry.”

Overnight in Taiwan’s second and third largest cities, mobs scuffled with police and pushed down barriers.

Top politicians on both sides appealed for calm.

Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, a rising star in the Nationalist Party that lost, expressed hope that the protest in the capital would end peacefully by tonight to avoid any disruptions to traffic when people return to work Monday morning.

But Ma said he had no plans to order police to disperse the crowd. Police used water cannons to break up demonstrators after the 2000 presidential election.

Premier Yu Shyi-kun, Taiwan’s third-ranking official and a Chen ally, said the situation was “not simple” but pledged the government would work with the opposition to resolve the demonstrations peacefully.

“The president has expressed understanding for the protesters and asked the authorities to handle the situation according to the law,” Yu told a news conference.

Chen, who campaigned on a China-bashing platform, and Vice President Annette Lu were shot and slightly wounded while riding in an open vehicle on Friday in Chen’s hometown Tainan.

Chen won Saturday’s election with 50.1% of the vote, compared with 49.9% for Lien – a margin of just 30,000 votes.

After the results were announced on Saturday night, the losing candidate immediately raised questions about more than 330,000 ballots that were allegedly spoiled. Mobs of his supporters stayed out all night to demand a recount.

After the court ordered the ballot boxes to be sealed, television footage showed judicial officials stacking bags full of voting papers on the floor before stuffing them inside cardboard boxes that were bound shut with tape.