Pan-blue camp lawyers yesterday conceded that the vote recount would not give them victory, but hoped that the courts would call new polls because of fraud they claim was committed as part of President Chen Shui-bian's (
Chen beat Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Lien said the shooting may have been staged to win sympathy votes and has filed two lawsuits to overturn Chen's victory and seek a new election.
"We have absolute confidence in the job we are doing and we will let the numbers speak for themselves and let the court make a final decision," pan-blue lawyer Lee Tsung-teh (
The lawyers said a vote recount completed in May had narrowed the difference to 21,863, with 40,327 disputed ballots awaiting a final ruling by the High Court, expected by September.
The High Court has called lawyers from both sides to a meeting this Monday to discuss the lawsuit seeking to nullify Chen's victory, and to set a hearing for the second suit, which seeks a new poll, for next Friday.
The opposition lawyers said that the disputed votes alone would not be enough to reverse the outcome, but added that they had found nearly 20,000 ballots that did not match voter registration lists, suggesting fraud.
"There were what we classified as ghost ballots, lost ballots and stolen ballots," lawyer Jaclyn Tsai told a news conference.
In many cases, the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters, the lawyers said. They said that various other irregularities had been found in 99 percent of voting booths.
"People should be able to trust the outcome of the election. But so many things went wrong in this election," Tsai said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the recount has not found signs of vote-rigging and that the outcome would not be reversed.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
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