TAIWAN?S main opposition party has re-submitted a lawsuit to invalidate last month?s knife-edge presidential election, refreshing their push for a new vote amid a deadlock over how a recount should proceed.

President Chen Shui-bian narrowly defeated Nationalist leader Lien Chan on March 20, a day after Chen was slightly wounded in an assassination attempt. The Nationalists say the shooting led to a swell of sympathy votes and may have been staged.

Lien?s lawyers have filed two lawsuits with the High Court ? one to invalidate Chen?s victory and order a recount, and the other to nullify the election itself and order a re-run.

The second suit was revised and refiled on Wednesday night to remove any conflicts with the first suit over the recount. ?We don?t want to see two recounts that may produce different outcomes so we decided to revise our election invalidation suit saying a separate recount is not necessary,? Huang Shan-shan, a lawyer for Lien, told Reuters yesterday. The suit says the central election authority should have postponed the election after the attack on Chen, and that it was illegal for a referendum to be held alongside the poll.

Analysts see little chance of a new election but say a recount is much more likely since it has Chen?s consent. However, the two sides disagree over how the re-tally should be held. Lien?s lawyers want judges in charge of the count whereas Chen?s lawyers say election officials ? under court supervision ? should take charge to speed up the process. Judges are set to hold a closed-door meeting with lawyers on Monday to discuss the issue.

Both sides have agreed on a full re-tally of the more than 13 million ballots cast in the election, including examination of a record 330,000 invalid ballots ? triple the number rejected in the last presidential election. Chen defeated Lien by fewer than 30,000 votes.