President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu were reelected today by a razor thin 0.22 percent margin of victory in the third-ever direct presidential election in the Republic of China on Taiwan. Voter turnout was high, with 13.25 million, or 80.28 percent, of TaiwanÕs voters casting ballots.
President Chen and Vice President Lu garnered 6,471,970 votes, while the pan-blue candidates, Lien Chan and James Soong, received 6,442,452 votes. A total of 13,251,719 voters cast ballots in this yearÕs presidential election, but of these, only 12,914,422 ballots were valid. The voter turnout rate was 80.28 percent, approximately 2.41 percent lower than the 2000 presidential election.
In the last presidential election, President Chen secured the presidency with 39.3 percent of the votes, while the independent James Soong won 36.84 percent and Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Lien Chan won 23.1 percent of the votes. This year, President Chen was reelected with 50.11 percent of the votes, which is 10.81 percent more than the last election. The pan-blue candidates won a total of 59.94 percent of the votes in 2000, but faced a loss of 10.05 percent of the votes, taking only 49.89 percent of the votes this year.
During todayÕs polling, voters in Taiwan also had an unprecedented opportunity to cast separate ballots on referendum measures. The first measure called for acquiring more advanced anti-missile weapons to strengthen TaiwanÕs self-defense capabilities if mainland China refuses to renounce the use of force against Taiwan, while the second measure called for the establishment of a Òpeace and stabilityÓ framework for cross-strait interactions. Because fewer than half of all eligible voters in Taiwan cast referendum ballots, neither passed.
According to TaiwanÕs recently enacted Referendum Law, a referendum passes so long as more than half of the qualified voters cast a ballot, and more than half of the valid ballots cast support the referendum measure. Today, 45.17 percent of all eligible voters cast ballots on the first referendum question, while 87.3 percent of these ballots expressed approval of the measure. Similarly, only 45.12 percent of eligible voters cast ballots on the second referendum question, but 84.8 percent of those balloted expressed approval.
Shortly after Central Election Commission Chairman Huang Shih-cheng officially announced the results of todayÕs voting, TaiwanÕs chief representative to the United States, C. J. (Chien-Jen) Chen said, ÒThe election campaign has been very peaceful and lively, indicating the strength of TaiwanÕs democracy.Ó
He added that the United States has followed the referendum issue closely, and would continue to pay close attention to cross-strait relations in the future.
In an official statement, the U.S. State Department congratulated Òthe people of Taiwan for having conducted a democratic election campaign and for having exercised their democratic voting rights in such large numbers.Ó
Meanwhile, the pan-blue candidates filed a suit to invalidate the election results and called for a recount.
Representative Chen noted that the U.S. government Òhopes that Taiwan will handle any questions about the election results rationally, and in accordance with established democratic mechanisms.
More than 670 foreign journalists representing 231 media agencies and 37 countries gathered in Taiwan to follow the tight presidential race and TaiwanÕs first referendum. In Washington, D.C., some forty correspondents of Taiwan media followed the election results at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States since the early morning.
