TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan's High Court dismissed an opposition legal bid to annul the result of controversial March elections won narrowly by President Chen Shui-bian after a mysterious shooting.
"The lawsuit is rejected," judge Wu Ching-yuan said before adding that the opposition must pay for the cost of the lawsuit.
The opposition can appeal within 20 days, he said Thursday.
Thursday's hearing took place amid heavy security, with barbed wire and hundreds of baton-wielding riot police guarding the court building from crowds of opposition supporters.
The Kuomintang-led opposition had filed a lawsuit on March 29 demanding a recount and nullification of Chen's re-election nine days earlier.
The opposition said the vote had been tarnished by widespread irregularities and by the eve-of-election shooting in which Chen and his running mate Annette Lu were slightly injured.
The opposition accused the ruling party of taking advantage of the shooting to put security forces on alert and prevent hundreds of soldiers -- traditionally believed to be KMT supporters -- from casting their ballots.
Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hailed Thursday's court ruling and hoped it would draw a line under the controversy.
"Justice is being done finally," the party's deputy secretary-general Lee Ying-yuan told reporters.
"We hope this is the end of all controversy... I believe most people would say enough is enough."
DPP lawyer Wellington Ku also urged the opposition to respect the verdict.
"If the legal mechanism of solving the dispute cannot be respected, then the dispute would go on forever," he said.
But the KMT-led opposition condemned the ruling, saying it "was the result of intervention by politics", and vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.
"This is not the final outcome. We will continue our efforts," said KMT lawyer Lee Tsung-teh.
The opposition filed another lawsuit in April demanding the nullification of the entire election, which they claim was unfair after being paired with a referendum on Taiwan's relationship with rival China.
Chen beat Lien by fewer than 30,000 votes, or 0.22 percent of the 13.5 million ballots cast.
11/04/2004 - 11:34 GMT - AFP