VZCZCXRO6032
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHIN #0273 0330850
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 020850Z FEB 07
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3992
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6329
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0801
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 1680
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 5648
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 9981
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 7561

UNCLAS TAIPEI 000273 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AIT/W, EAP/TC, INR/EAP 
 
FROM AIT KAOHSIUNG BRANCH OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV TW
SUBJECT: Recount Ordered in Kaohsiung Mayoral Election 
 
REF:  2006 Taipei 4125 
 
¶1.  Summary: Kaohsiung District Court judges have decided to accept 
defeated KMT mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying's request to recount 
the ballots for the 2006 Kaohsiung City mayoral election.  The 
recount will start on March 12 and conclude on March 19. Huang has 
been asked to submit a $136,363 fee, which will be refunded if he is 
victorious in his lawsuit.  A panel of judges will be appointed to 
reexamine the ballots.  End summary. 
 
¶2. In response to the lawsuit filed by defeated Kuomingtang (KMT) 
mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (reftel), the Kaohsiung District 
Court ruled on February 1 that the ballots used in the 2006 
Kaohsiung City mayoral election will have to be recounted.  The 
recount is scheduled to start on March 12 and conclude on March 19. 
Any ballots deemed questionable during the recount will be examined 
by a panel of judges after March 19.  A written ruling ordering the 
recount is expected to be released within a week. 
 
¶3.  The Judges who ruled on the case gave the following reasons for 
ruling in favor of the recount: 
 
- an unusually large number of invalid votes (Note: 6,622 of the 
767,862 votes were invalidated); 
- a very narrow margin of victory (Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu 
(DPP) won by 1,114 votes); 
- the more than 4,000 votes identified as questionable by Huang 
exceed the margin of victory; 
- Huang has identified more than 100 voting booths with potentially 
questionable votes (note: 839 total voting booths for the entire 
election). 
 
¶4.  In order to carry out the recount, the court has requested that 
Huang, the petitioner, deposit NTD4,500,000 (USD136,363) in an 
account with the court.  The fee, the amount that the recount is 
estimated to cost, will be charged to the side that loses the 
lawsuit.  A panel of judges will examine each ballot and determine 
whether or not a ballot is questionable; the three judges in charge 
of the case will then reexamine those ballots set aside by the panel 
of judges. 
 
¶5.  Huang praised the court's discretion and commended the 
independence of the judiciary.  Mayor Chen expressed her 
disappointment with the ruling but said that she respects the 
court's decision.  Mayor Chen added that Taiwan has elections every 
one or two years, and that it would be a waste of societal resources 
if every loser were allowed to request a recount. 
 
TTHIELE 
 
WANG