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| Khaleej Times, 12.30.2004 Taiwan court rejects opposition bid to nullify presidential polls (AFP) TAIPEI - Taiwan's High Court on Thursday rejected the opposition's bid to nullify controversial March 20 presidential polls, which saw President Chen Shui-bian returned to office by the slimmest of majorities. "The lawsuit is overruled and the plaintiff has to pay the legal costs," judge Cheng Ya-ting announced in a brief statement, without providing reasons. The opposition can appeal within the next 20 days, she said. The Kuomintang (KMT)-led opposition were angry at the outcome of the ruling while hundreds of their slogan-chanting supporters protested outside the court. "The outcome shows Taiwan justice is dead," KMT parliamentarian Tseng Yung-chuan told reporters. "Why can the Ukraine people (overturn an election outcome) and the Taiwan people cannot?" he asked. Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won last weekend's presidential polls in a landmark re-election following an earlier run-off vote in November which he lost because of widespread fraud. Lawmaker Chiu Yi from another the opposition People First Party said "the ruling shows Taiwan's judicial system is manipulated by politics." The opposition parties said they would keep up the legal fight and appeal. "Given the unfair ruling, we will appeal," Tseng said as the crowds tried to push their way into the courtroom cordoned off by barbed wire and hundreds of police. The High Court last month rejected the opposition's first suit, filed on March 29, to nullify the election victory of Chen and his running mate Annette Lu alleging that voting irregularities and a mysterious shooting had tarnished the vote. Chen and Lu were slightly injured on the eve of the bitterly fought election while campaigning in southern Taiwan. Opposition politicians suspected the shooting might have been staged to win sympathy in a poll decided by fewer than 30,000 votes or 0.22 percent of the 13.5 million ballots cast. In April, the opposition launched another suit against the Central Election Commission in a bid to annul the entire election because of what they claimed to have been widespread administrative flaws and questions about the legality of an accompanying referendum on Taiwan's relations with rival China. It also accused the commission of violating the law by not suspending the election after security forces were put on alert following the shooting, which prevented members of the military from casting their ballots. In the weeks following Lien's narrow defeat, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters staged sometimes round-the-clock demonstrations in Taipei to protest what they said was an unfair election. |