TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 20 (UPI) -- Taiwan's High Court ordered ballot boxes sealed following demands for a recount in the narrow re-election victory of President Chen Shui-bian.
Kuomintang leader Lien Chan refused to concede defeat, saying there had been too many irregularities surrounding the election, in which more than 80 percent of the island's voters participated. Chen declared victory with a narrow margin of approximately 27,000 votes.
The Nationalist Party said it was concerned over the high number of spoiled ballot papers -- more than 330,000, the BBC reported, about 12 times the winning margin.
The voting took place one day after an assassination attempt in which Chen and Vice President Annette Lu were slightly injured. The shooting apparently tipped the vote in favor of the Democratic People's Party and the incumbent president, who had been trailing the opposition in recent polls.
It was the second failed presidential attempt for Lien Chan and his running mate, James Soong, who ran on separate tickets in the last election in 2000. They expected an easy win after pooling their parties to run against Chen.
Chen ran on a platform of independence from China, a position that is unacceptable to China.
