Opposition lawsuits challenge legitimacy of Chen's victory

Chen has a crucial role to play in the election lawsuits and must not shirk the responsibility on the grounds that the legal disputes are matters needing to be handled by the relevant courts of law. That is only partly true. The judicial institutions cannot address all of Lien’s demands, some of which go beyond their authority and require the involvement of the president.

For example, Lien’s request that an independent panel consisting of experts in fields such as criminal and medical treatment be created to help probe into the shooting case, can only be fulfilled by the president. And it is appropriate for Chen to positively respond to that request, as this is the best way to meet the opposition’s challenge to the legitimacy of his win.

The opposition believes that an outside expert panel is necessary not only to help the prosecutors at the district court of Tainan, where Chen was shot while riding in a motorcade find out who did it, how the attack was carried out and the way medical treatment was administered in the wake of the shooting.

Answers to these questions must be obtained to determine whether the accident was staged to gain voters’ sympathy. A media survey held Sunday found that the shooting had earned Chen nearly 800,000 sympathetic votes, enabling him to reverse his pre-election lagging poll ratings and prevail over his challenger Lien.

A specially appointed panel is also necessary to look into the opposition’s allegation that Chen and his campaign team had used the gunshot to undermine voter support for Lien by unjustifiably raising the level of national security alert, an executive order that reportedly technically blocked tens of thousands of military servicemen and police officers from going home and casting ballots. Most of these people traditionally voted for the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party (PFP).

The opposition’s demand for an immediate full recount of all votes cast in the presidential election is legitimate, considering the fact that the ballots declared invalid by the central election commission numbered as many as 330,000, over 11 times Chen’s margin of victory. And that alleged tallying irregularities and vote-rigging were widespread.

Yet the Taiwan High Court has only partially agreed to the demand by having all ballot boxes from 13,000 polling stations seized and sealed. It failed to order a quick start of vote recount. Nor has it ruled on the request for a full investigation of all the boxes. The opposition is concerned that further delays would provide more opportunity for evidence to be destroyed. What is more a slow legal procedure, it worries, would make it unlikely for the recount to be completed before May 20 when the next president must take office.

Yesterday, Chen for the first time made a positive response to the vote recount request by saying that he supported such a move through a revision by the Legislature of the existing presidential election law. This change would grant a vote recount request by a candidate who lost election by a margin of less than one percent of ballots.

But opposition leaders and lawmakers rejected Chen’s support for revision of the law as delaying tactics. Indeed, even if a revision can be swiftly completed, it would, according to administration officials, take at least two weeks for them to get ready for the vote re-examination to start.

Late yesterday, the opposition demanded that a full recount be launched within the next 48 hours. And it was also disappointed at Chen’s failure to answer its request for the appointment of a special committee to look into the suspicions surrounding the shooting case and the justification of the administration putting the military and security forces on higher alert.

The challenge for Chen is that if he cannot appropriately respond to the opposition’s demands, he would be unable to persuade the thousands of angry protesters to end their demonstrations staged in front of the presidential office since Saturday night. The marathon protests have caused the stock market to plunge for two straight days for a total of 652 points.

The post-election political contests have already tarnished Taiwan’s image as a democracy. The international community has been watching developments here with growing concern, worrying that a continuation of the contest will not only jeopardize domestic stability, but may also lead to greater tensions with Beijing.

In fact, Chen’s own credibility and interests are also at risk. Unless he can resolve the election disputes with the opposition properly, he might be unable to win recognition of his re-election by Washington and other foreign governments.

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