Pingtung District Court on Thursday dismissed a request by Su Ching-chuan (???), the Kuomintang’s (KMT) Pingtung magistrate candidate in the Nov. 26 local elections, for a recount of votes cast in the election.

According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, the district court in the administrative region where the election is held should order a recount within 20 days of securing the ballots cast at polling stations.

Su lost to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chou Chun-mi (???) by a narrow margin of about 11,000 votes, or 2.5 percent, prompting him to file a request with the court that ballots be secured and recounted.

The court last month rejected Su’s request that the ballots should be secured, and on Tuesday launched an investigation into whether a recount of the ballots was necessary.

It ruled against a recount on the grounds that the margin by which Su lost to Chou was wider than 0.3 percent of the total number of ballots cast, the level at which the act allows a recount.

Asked to comment on the ruling, Su said that he had filed a lawsuit against Pingtung Election Commission on grounds that the election outcome should be invalidated.

There were more than 13,000 spoiled votes in the Pingtung magistrate election and the vote count was “rife with illegalities and errors” that failed to honestly reflect the result of the poll, according to Su.

Asked whether he would appeal Thursday’s ruling, Su said he would consult with his lawyer before making a decision.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel