Taipei (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Operations got underway this morning for a recount of votes of the polemic-filled Taiwan presidential elections. Election results had confirmed the re-election of Chen Shuibian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), beating out opposition candidate Lien Chan of the Kuomintang (KMT) party. 

Under the supervision of the High Court of Taiwan and with around 1500 attorneys of the government majority and opposition parties monitoring procedures, 16.5 million votes will be examined in 21 district courts across the island.

There will be particular attention paid to the some 300,000 ballots that were declared invalid. High Court spokesman, Wen Yao-yuan, said that operations would be video taped to assure transparency.   

The recount is scheduled to finish this May 20, the day in which the new president is supposed to be inaugurated. However, there will be more time needed to establish whether to declare the most problematic ballots valid or not.

Post-election controversy and tension continue to swell. On the eve of the recount, local media reported that 900 ballots went missing from a polling station (in Fengshan near Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan) but then turned up again with votes marked for the referendum called on the same day of the presidential elections.

It was the opposition coalition formed by the KMT People's First Party that formally submitted a request to the High Court of Taiwan for a recount of votes. Attorneys for the two parties presented 9 charges of voting irregularities to the court in Kaohsiung.

Following a series of mass protests, President Chen Shuibian said he would be for a recount, admitting he would accept the outcome 100% and urged the opposition to make the same commitment. Yet KMT spokesman, Justin Chou Shou-hsin, said the recount would only be the first step, no matter what the outcome was. The spokesman also said that the opposition would not withdraw its legal action taken against the election results. 

Initially, the KMT party had asked to declare the election results invalid, charging that the elections were rigged and influenced by a faked assassination attempt on Chen and his vice-president the day before voters went to the polls. According to opposition leaders, the latter incident worked in favor of the majority when voters cast their ballots the very next day. (MR)

• taiwan
• china
• elections