Taiwanese Election Result

DPP Victory

Incumbent President Chen Shui-bian (’Â?…?G) and his running-mate Annette Lu (˜C?G˜@) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday won the 2004 presidential election against the rival ticket of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (˜A?D) and his vice-presidential candidate People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (‘v‘^àï) by a narrow margin of 30,598 votes.

But the nation's first-ever referendum failed to get the number of voters necessary to make the result valid. Only 45.17 percent of eligible voters took part. The Referendum Law (Œö–¯“Š•[–@) requires at least 50 percent of those eligible to cast votes to make the vote valid....

Speaking before an angry crowd in front of the pan-blue camp's election campaign headquarters in Taipei, Lien refused to concede defeat and said the alliance would file a lawsuit against the result announced by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), claiming the election was invalid and demanding the result should be annulled.

I expect the Chinese and their sympathizers are not pleased by this outcome.

Update: While we are on the subject of Taiwan, I found an interesting and informative Taiwanese blog called a better tomorrow, which covers stories that don't appear in the english language taiwanese newspapers.