More than 100,000 Taiwan opposition supporters protested on Saturday, demanding an independent inquiry into an election-eve assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian that they suspect may have been staged.
Waving flags, tooting horns and chanting "We want the truth", they filled the square outside the presidential office in Taipei, in the third major protest since Chen defeated Nationalist leader Lien Chan in the hotly disputed presidential poll on March 20.
Lien says sympathy votes swung the election and wants an impartial investigation into the mysterious shooting, in which Chen was slightly wounded.
The president has rejected the demand so the Nationalists want to hold a referendum on the issue.
"In the last three weeks, Mr Chen Shui-bian has shied away from, avoided and ignored the people's demands. This is not a long-term strategy," Lien told the crowd.
"You cannot forever hide behind the iron barriers and barbed wire," he said to Chen, pointing to the strong barricades that riot police had erected to protect the president's office.
Police estimated about 120,000 people at the rally, double the number at last weekend's event but less than the 500,000 who took to the streets on March 27 in Taiwan's largest ever protest.
The demonstration was peaceful though the government worried it could turn violent at night. Last weekend, a few hundred protesters had tried to storm the presidential office and clashed with riot police in the early hours of the morning.
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