TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's presidential election was plunged into turmoil today as the island's High Court ordered ballot boxes sealed hours after the opposition challenged President Chen Shui-bian's razor-thin victory.
A day after surviving an election-eve assassination attempt, Chen appeared Saturday to have won by a margin of just 29,000 of the nearly 13 million votes cast. But the results were immediately challenged by the opposition alliance headed by the Nationalist Party, which demanded a recount of about 330,000 ballots declared invalid by the Central Election Commission -- a number 10 times Chen's margin of victory.
The court early today gave the Nationalists 15 days to provide evidence of their claims of irregularities.
In addition to the presidential vote, a referendum seen as a challenge to Beijing failed because less than 50% of the electorate cast ballots. The Nationalists had urged a boycott of the referendum, which asked voters whether mainland China should remove nearly 500 ballistic missiles aimed at the island and whether the Taiwanese government should try to negotiate a peaceful relationship with Beijing. Just over 45% of the island's registered voters took part, almost all voting yes.
Aside from challenging the vote count in the presidential race, the Nationalists contended that irregularities and a series of disputed, confused events leading up to the election undermined the legitimacy of the entire process, rendering the election invalid. They lodged formal legal complaints in several other jurisdictions arguing that the results should be annulled.
"This is an unfair election," Nationalist candidate Lien Chan told stunned supporters at campaign headquarters in Taipei after the result was announced. "There are too many suspicious circumstances."
The chaotic developments, coupled with the shock and controversy swirling around Friday's assassination attempt, constitute a blow to what is widely considered one of the most successful, genuine and enthusiastic new democracies in Asia. Turnout for the presidential vote was an impressive 80%.
Emotions exploded into violence early today in the southern port city of Kaohsiung when a sound truck rammed the outer gates of a government building and about 400 Nationalist supporters protesting outside attacked riot police with sticks and rocks. After a police counterattack, the protesters lingered briefly before drifting away just before dawn.
