News: Taiwan President Wins Narrow Re-Election

By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer

TAIPEI, Taiwan – President Chen Shui-bian narrowly won re-election Saturday a day after being shot in an assassination attempt, but a referendum he had championed on beefing up defenses against China failed because not enough voters took part.

His opponent suggested the attempt on Chen’s life Friday gained him crucial sympathy votes in a tight race and asked for the results to be nullified. Polls four days before the vote had put the opponents neck and neck, both sides said.

Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party, won 50.1 percent of the presidential ballot, the Central Election Commission said. Challenger Lien Chan, of the Nationalist Party, came away with 49.9 percent. About 13 million ballots were cast for president, and turnout was 80 percent, the commission said.

Besides allegations of unfairness, the loss of the referendum was a heavy blow to Chen, who had said its defeat would be a victory for Beijing. Powerful opposition figures had said Chen did not have the legal authority to call the referendum and urged people to boycott it.

Of those who voted, 92 percent said “yes” on both issues: whether to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses if China refuses to redeploy hundreds of missiles pointed at the island; and whether Taiwan should seek talks with China about setting up a new “peace and stability framework.”

But only 45 percent of eligible voters participated, less than the necessary 50 percent for the referendum to be valid.

In his presidential victory speech, Chen shrugged off the referendum defeat, saying people didn’t seem to understand the questions. He appealed to mainland China to respect the election.

“It is a new era for solidarity and harmony and a new era for peace across the Taiwan Strait,” Chen said. “We sincerely ask the Beijing authorities across the strait to view the election results from a positive perspective — to accept the democratic decision of the Taiwanese people.”

Chen’s opponents, meanwhile, sent lawyers to the High Court in Taipei around midnight to request an emergency order sealing all ballot boxes. Police with riot gear lined up outside as a precaution, rolling out barbed wire and bringing dogs.

Only a small crowd gathered in Taipei, but larger groups were standing outside other court houses across the island. So far, the protesters were peaceful.

Lien himself noted that election officials had ruled more than 330,000 ballots were invalid — 10 times Chen’s margin of victory.

China, which had no immediate reaction to the voting, had feared the referendum as a rehearsal for a vote on Taiwan independence. Beijing and Taipei split amid civil war in 1949, and China wants the island to rejoin the mainland.

In criticizing the election, Lien and his party questioned the timing of the assassination attempt, saying a shooting on the eve of the vote was suspicious and its influence should be investigated.

“A bullet was fired at President Chen, but it ended up hurting us,” said Jason Hu, the Nationalist mayor of Taichung, Taiwan’s third-largest city.

Gunfire hit Chen in the abdomen and Vice President Annette Lu in the knee as they rode through the southern town of Tainan at midday Friday, waving to supporters from an open-top Jeep. Neither leader was seriously wounded.

The vice president demanded that Lien back up his charges.

“What is fair and unfair? If you make the petition without any evidence, then the democracy that we took pains to establish could be damaged,” Lu told supporters at campaign headquarters before breaking into tears.

Joseph Wu, a senior Presidential Office official, said that “there were no sympathy votes.” The assassination attempt was being treated as a criminal case — not a conspiracy or an attack that involved China, prosecutor Wang Sen-jung said Saturday. No suspects have been identified.

Chen, 53, grew up in a poor village and graduated from Taiwan’s top law school. He got into politics by defending dissidents during the martial law era, which ended in 1987. He has been a legislator and Taipei mayor.

By contrast, Lien, 67, belongs to one of Taiwan’s richest families. The former political science professor served as an ambassador, foreign minister, premier and vice president in the former Nationalist government.

Neither candidate favored immediate unification with China, and both deeply distrust the communist leadership. But Chen has been more aggressive in pushing for a Taiwanese identity separate from China, raising tensions with Beijing.

However, Nationalist Party opponent Lien Chan swiftly challenged the razor-thin result, describing the election as unfair and invalid and saying he would ask for a recount.

“We want to raise a motion to declare the election invalid,” Lien, head of the Nationalist Party, told a cheering crowd of thousands at his campaign headquarters.

“We ask the central election commission to seize and seal all ballot boxes,” he said, adding that he wanted a recount.

With more than half the vote counted in official results, Chen had taken a lead that made it almost impossible for his opponent to win, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said.

Chen had won 3.46 million votes compared with 3.26 million for Lien, the CEC added.

Unofficial television results showed Chen with 6.47 million votes against 6.44 million for Lien. Counting was still going on.

Chen was en route to his campaign headquarters, DPP officials said.

CHINA FACTOR

Chinese authorities had no official reaction to the day’s turbulent events, which could determine whether Taiwan moves closer to its arch-foe or further away.

Little had divided the candidates except for their policy toward arch-foe China. However, Chen had enraged China by calling an election day referendum on whether to boost the island’s defense against 500 missiles arrayed against it by Beijing. Results of the referendum were due later.

Chen espouses an aggressive policy that sees Taiwan as independent. Lien favors a conciliatory approach to the island’s giant neighbor that has threatened war if the self-ruled island it regards as a renegade province moves to declare formal independence.

Saturday’s cliffhanger election was overshadowed by the gun attack on the president in which he was shot in the abdomen as his campaign motorcade drove through a southern city.

Vice President Annette Lu, campaigning with him, was wounded in the right knee. The pair were treated in hospital and discharged a few hours later.

Police said they believed two assailants were involved and authorities offered a T$13 million ($390,000) reward for information leading to their capture. Lien’s party offered another T$10 million. No one has yet been arrested.

But analysts said the narrowness of the victory, with Chen winning such a tiny margin out of about 14 million cast should serve as a lesson.

“I think the gunshot incident was one of the major factors,” said Philip Yang, a political scientist at National Taiwan University.

“I think he (Chen) realizes that without the gunshot incident Lien may be president now, so now is the time for him to bring the country together.”

The presidential election is only Taiwan’s third by universal suffrage.

“I must admit, I’m a little surprised,” said lawmaker Pang Chien-kuo from the party of Lien’s running mate, James Soong.

“We didn’t think yesterday’s incident would influence the election as much as this,” he said of the assassination attempt. “Our data said even yesterday that we would win by five percent, but these results, I have to say, are quite disappointing.”

Results of the referendum could cause further bitterness in an island clearly split down the middle by the election.

Lien, who had criticized the referendum as meaningless and illegal, declined to pick up a ballot paper.

Under election law, at least half the electorate must take part to validate the referendum.

Early results showed turnout for the referendum at between 49 percent and 51 percent, local television stations said.

The ballot drew threats of war from Beijing, which sees it as a dry run for a vote on independence by the island it views as a breakaway province, to be recovered by force if necessary. (Additional reporting by Tiffany Wu, Alice Hung, Kirby Chien and Michael Kramer)