Taiwan’s president Chen Shui-bian can breathe a sigh of relief.
Not only did he and his vice president, Annette Lu, survive Taiwan’s first ever assasination attempt on a head of state Friday, but he narrowly beat out challenger Lien Chan in a nationwide election last night. Chan, however, is calling for a re-count.
Things here have been surprisingly subdued: word of the shooting didn’t reach us until late Friday night; last night, people gathered around TV sets set up outside stores to watch the election results come in. When Chen bested his rival, a few supporters set off firecrackers in celebration. The race was extremely close: about 13 million people cast ballots (a voter turnout of over 80%), and Chen won by less than 30,000 votes.
For more info, see this Washington Post article.
Stay tuned. In the coming days, I’ll be writing more–highlights from my Pendleton, OR/Seattle trip, stories about our arrival in Taiwan, impressions of the place so far, etc.