Car Runs Down Taiwan Dissident’s Wife

Authorities in Taiwan confirmed Wednesday that the wife of a prominent critic of the island’s ruling Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, has been run down by a car and paralyzed from the chest down in what the government terms an accident and her husband calls an assassination attempt.

During the election campaign that ended here last Saturday, the victim’s husband, Chen Shui-pian, a publisher of anti-government magazines, denounced “the Kuomintang’s 40 years of occupation on the island.” Chen lost a race for a county magistrate’s seat in the balloting. His wife was injured Monday while she walked down a village street thanking residents who voted for Chen.

Police officials said they had arrested the driver of the vehicle, and the man told them his brakes failed. Authorities ruled out any link between the mishap and Chen’s candidacy. Chen charged, however, that his wife was the victim of a murder attempt.

It was one of several controversies that have cropped up on Taiwan in the aftermath of last week’s elections. The Kuomintang’s candidates won with about 70% of the vote, approximately the same proportion as in past elections, but opposition leaders have complained that there was an unprecedented amount of vote-buying, ballot-stuffing and other improprieties in areas outside Taipei this year.

In one town, Hsinchu, Saturday’s balloting led to a riot. At least 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside city government offices after the local results were announced Saturday night to demand a recount. Cars were overturned, some demonstrators threw stones at police and 10 people were arrested.

In the cities of Kaohsung and Tainan, local prosecutors were asked to investigate charges of ballot-rigging. In both places, candidates who had opposed the Kuomintang said they found blank ballots that had apparently gotten out of the hands of election authorities.

On Monday, Taiwan newspapers quoted President Chiang Ching-kuo as saying he was gratified that the election had not been marred by any serious violations of election laws. Asked about complaints of vote-buying, a government spokesman said this week that Taiwan’s judicial authorities “will take over the cases if they have merit.”

Chen was convicted of libel earlier this year. He said this week that his family had received a letter warning that if he did not stay out of politics, his wife, Wu Hsu-chen, 33, would be harmed.

Last week, just before the election, a Kuomintang official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Times that his party cared primarily about defeating two candidates. One of them was Chen, whom the Kuomintang official described as a “radical.”

According to authorities, Chen’s wife was accidentally run down by a vehicle driven by a 31-year-old brick carrier. Authorities said the man had been turned over to local prosecutors. Medical officials said Wu’s life is now out of danger.

Despite the man’s assertion that the brakes on his vehicle failed, Taiwan newspapers reported late Wednesday that initial tests had not found any defects in the braking system.