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KMT CHIEF URGES PRESIDENT TO RESPOND TO 'PAN-BLUE ALLIANCE' APPEALS

2004-03-27 20:11:47

    Taipei, March 27 (CNA) Opposition Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan demanded again Saturday that President Chen Shui-bian give a positive response to the "pan-blue alliance's" three appeals -- an immediate recount of votes, formation of a task force in charge of the March 19 shooting and allowing re-voting by soldiers and police officers barred from casting their ballots due to the activation of the national security mechanism following the shooting.

    Lien made the remarks while speaking to more than 300,000 supporters of the alliance who flocked to the Presidential Office square from across the island to protest against what they describe as an "unfair" presidential election. Thousands of the supporters have been in the square conducting a marathon sit-in since the announcement of the preliminary election results last Saturday.

    Noting that the "pan-blue alliance" will stand firm with all the public that love Taiwan to reach the end, Lien said he hoped that President Chen will respond positively to the three appeals of the alliance. "If no concrete responses are given by Chen in the coming days, we will consider continuing our long-term protest," he went on. "Even though the March 20 election ended, there are still many questions left unresolved and therefore, all of us are together here to seek justice and push for the judicial authorities to get to the bottom of the shooting," Lien said.

    Stressing that the election was unfair and unjust, Lien said that impartiality and justice are foundations for a country's democratic development.

    Lien said it was incredible that the gun attack on President Chen Shui-bian and his running mate -- Vice President Annette Lu -- occurred hours prior to the voting, and he added that the "pan-blue alliance" thus suspended all large scale campaign activities around the island while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) unfairly suggested that the KMT and the People First Party "were in cahoots with Beijing" to assassinate the Chen-Lu Ticket.

    In addition, a host of soldiers and police officers were deprived of their right to cast ballots in the election because of the activation of the national security mechanism following the shooting, Lien said.

    Chen and Lu were lightly wounded when an unidentified assailant fired at least two shots at them while the candidates were driving past large crowds of supporters in an open-top jeep in the southern city of Tainan March 19. The shooting grazed Chen's abdomen and hit Lu's right knee.

    Meanwhile, PFP Chairman James Soong said that should the election be declared invalid because of any irregularities and another election be held, he will waive his vice presidential candidacy to fully support Lien's presidential race.

    The Lien-Soong ticket lost the election to the Chen-Lu ticket by a razor-thin margin of 0.228 percent.

(By Luis Huang)

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