Taiwan Prez Re-Elected, Barely

Taiwan's High Court ordered the sealing of all ballet boxes on the island Sunday, one day after President Chen Shui-bian was re-elected by a narrow margin following an assassination attempt.

The court order came after Chen's opponent, former vice president Lien Chan, challenged the results, saying the assassination attempt affected Saturday's presidential election and more than 300,000 ballots were spoiled. Chen won by 30,000 votes.

Wen Yao-yuan, a high court judge, said 21 courts around the island were authorized to handle the sealing of ballot boxes.

On Saturday, President Chen narrowly won re-election after being shot in an assassination attempt, but a referendum he had championed on beefing up defenses against China failed because not enough voters took part.

Chan suggested the attempt on Chen's life Friday gained him crucial sympathy votes in a tight race and asked for the results to be nullified. Polls four days before the vote had put the opponents neck and neck, both sides said.

Riot police were deployed as hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the streets to protest the election results, setting the stage for a possible political crisis that could challenge Taiwan's young democracy.

Crowds became violent in the third-largest city, Taichung, where hundreds of people pushed over a metal barrier at a courthouse, shoved their way through a police line and began smashing windows with their bare hands. Many chanted, "Check the ballots!"

Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party, won 50.1 percent of the presidential ballot, the Central Election Commission said. Lien, of the Nationalist Party, came away with 49.9 percent. About 13 million ballots were cast for president, and turnout was 80 percent, the commission said.

Besides allegations of unfairness, the loss of the referendum was a heavy blow to Chen, who had said its defeat would be a victory for Beijing. Powerful opposition figures had said Chen did not have the legal authority to call the referendum and urged people to boycott it.

Of those who voted, 92 percent said "yes" on both issues: whether to strengthen Taiwan's defenses if China refuses to redeploy hundreds of missiles pointed at the island; and whether Taiwan should seek talks with China about setting up a new "peace and stability framework."

But only 45 percent of eligible voters participated, less than the necessary 50 percent for the referendum to be valid.

In his presidential victory speech, Chen shrugged off the referendum defeat, saying people didn't seem to understand the questions. He appealed to mainland China to respect the election.

"It is a new era for solidarity and harmony and a new era for peace across the Taiwan Strait," Chen said. "We sincerely ask the Beijing authorities across the strait to view the election results from a positive perspective - to accept the democratic decision of the Taiwanese people."

China, which had no immediate reaction to the voting, had feared the referendum as a rehearsal for a vote on Taiwan independence. Beijing and Taipei split amid civil war in 1949, and China wants the island to rejoin the mainland.

In criticizing the election, Lien and his party questioned the timing of the assassination attempt, saying a shooting on the eve of the vote was suspicious and its influence should be investigated.

"A bullet was fired at President Chen, but it ended up hurting us," said Jason Hu, the Nationalist mayor of Taichung, Taiwan's third-largest city.

Gunfire hit Chen in the abdomen and Vice President Annette Lu in the knee as they rode through the southern town of Tainan at midday Friday, waving to supporters from an open-top Jeep. Neither leader was seriously wounded.

The vice president demanded that Lien back up his charges.

"What is fair and unfair? If you make the petition without any evidence, then the democracy that we took pains to establish could be damaged," Lu told supporters at campaign headquarters before breaking into tears.

Joseph Wu, a senior Presidential Office official, said that "there were no sympathy votes." The assassination attempt was being treated as a criminal case, not a conspiracy or an attack that involved China, prosecutor Wang Sen-jung said Saturday. No suspects have been identified.

Chen, 53, grew up in a poor village and graduated from Taiwan's top law school. He got into politics by defending dissidents during the martial law era, which ended in 1987. He has been a legislator and Taipei mayor.

By contrast, Lien, 67, belongs to one of Taiwan's richest families. The former political science professor served as an ambassador, foreign minister, premier and vice president in the former Nationalist government.

Neither candidate favored immediate unification with China, and both deeply distrust the communist leadership. But Chen has been more aggressive in pushing for a Taiwanese identity separate from China, raising tensions with Beijing.