Taipei (AsiaNews/Agencies) – President Chen Shuibian of the Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) has been reelected by about 30,000 votes.

Huang Shih-cheng, chairman of the Central Elections Commission, (CEC), said Chen won  6,471,970 votes (50.12%) versus 6,442,452 (49.88%) for Lien Chan of the Kuomintang (KMT) party; 337,297 (2.5%) were said to be invalid and that 80.28% of citizens voted.

The first-ever referendum called in the country did not receive the minimum number votes necessary to pass, as only 45% of voters turned out to express their opinion. The first part of referendum, which sought to step up security measures against China, received only 45.7% of votes. The second part, which asked voters if they wanted to open negotiations with China, received 45.12% of votes.    

The opposition candidate said elections were "unfair", since they were carried out under suspicious circumstances and asked that results be invalidated. 

Yesterday, Chen and his vice president, Annette Lu, were slightly wounded by gunfire and rushed to a nearby hospital. According to some analysts, the incident influenced the outcome of today's voting in favor of Chen. Lien Chan complained that that there still weren't any official explanations regarding the supposed assassination attempt. 

The CEC said that the request to recall elections must be made to Taipei's High Court within 15 days. On March 26 official election results are scheduled to be released. 

Taiwan's National Security Office has ruled out China's involvement in yesterday's attack on the president and vice president's lives. It also said the incident had no relation to the millions of dollars gambling rings placed on election outcomes. For now, however, no official statements have been released and no one has been arrested. (MR)

• taiwan
• presidential
• elections
• assasination
• attempt