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| Wednesday, 24 March 2004 |
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Taiwan election to be recounted after law proposal TAIPEI, Tuesday (Reuters) Taiwan's election law is to be changed on Tuesday after the winner of the weekend's disputed presidential vote asked parliament to allow a recount if a margin of victory was less than one percent. President Chen Shui-bian, who retained the presidency by a wafer thin margin of just 0.2 percent, asked his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to submit the proposal on Tuesday as a row over the result stretched into a third day. The motion could break the political deadlock created when Nationalist presidential candidate Lien Chan demanded Saturday's election result be declared invalid and called for an immediate recount. "We have submitted our proposal to parliament and it is expected to pass today," DPP whip Chen Chi-mai told Reuters. The proposed revision would be retroactive, he said. Saturday's result was the closest in the history of Taiwan's young democracy. Chen outlined details of his proposal to revise the law at a morning meeting with the heads of Taiwan's five branches of government, broadcaster ETTV said. The Nationalists responded with caution. "I haven't seen an official statement yet. But if the counting is to proceed right now then I would say our efforts have been successful," Nationalist spokesman Justin Chou said. "But we don't want to wait. Our request is a recount right now. That's the point." Chou told Reuters. However, the Nationalists hold a majority in parliament, meaning passage of such a revision could be swift. Several thousand Lien supporters were massed outside the presidential palace in central Taipei for a third day on Tuesday, vowing not to go home without a recount of the vote that gave Taiwan's president a razor-thin victory on a wave of sympathy after he survived an election eve assassination bid. |
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