TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's opposition said Tuesday that a recount of the disputed March presidential election has revealed some new problems — including ballots that were improperly stored or not certified by the voters.
But the ruling Democratic Progressive Party insisted that the errors were the result of careless election workers, not voting fraud.
"So far there are no signs that election officials have favored a certain party or rigged votes to favor a party," DPP official Chung Chia-pin told reporters.
The controversy over the March 20 vote began immediately after President Chen Shui-bian squeaked by with a 0.2 percent victory margin, or about 30,000 votes. He was re-elected one day after being lightly injured in a shooting, which is still unsolved.
Losing candidate Lien Chan has alleged that the vote was marred by irregularities. He called for a recount of the 13 million votes and the president agreed to it.
On Tuesday, opposition official Chiang Lien-sheng said one precinct in southern Pingtung handed out only 744 ballots but recorded a total of 954 votes. Election official Wang Shu-pin acknowledged that a recording worker had made a mistake.
The opposition also said some ballots weren't properly marked by fingerprint impressions or personal stamps that people use to certify their vote.
The March vote was Taiwan's third direct presidential election, but it was the first time the island held such a vote together with an islandwide referendum. This apparently caused confusion.
Hundreds of presidential votes were improperly placed in sealed bags that were meant for referendum ballots, Opposition lawyer Tsai Yu-ling said.
Court official Tang Kuang-yi, meanwhile, said some votes for Chen and his running mate, Vice President Annette Lu, were mishandled.
"One team of judges found 50 ballots for Chen and Lu that were mistakenly put in a stack of ballots" for the rival candidate, Tang said.
Ruling party lawmaker Tsai Huang-lang warned the opposition against speculating about voting fraud, saying it could give supporters "false expectations" that the poll result could be overturned.
"We are afraid they were stirring up emotions that could lead to unrest" after the recount, Tsai told reporters.
About 1,600 judges and other court officials were retallying the ballots by hand. The process was expected to be finished just before the planned May 20 presidential inauguration.
Officials weren't providing a daily tally but said a total of about 2 million ballots were recounted on Monday.
Lawyers representing the rival candidates were monitoring the recount for fairness and had the authority to pull out ballots that they thought should be ruled invalid. The High Court would make the final call on the votes.