Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian on Friday survived a second vote aimed at ousting him from power after the opposition party failed to amass enough support at the "Legislative Yuan", the Taiwan legislature.

Only 116 votes were cast in favor of the bid proposed by the People First Party (PFP) to force Chen out of office while all the legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) boycotted the vote.

As a result, the motion failed to get the required approval of two-thirds of Taiwan's 220 legislators, or 147 votes.

Upon hearing the news, Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of Kuomintang (KMT), expressed his regret. He said that the opposition would go on calling for Chen to step down if there was no further development in dealing with Chen's alleged corruption.

The opposition parties of the KMT and PFP launched a motion to oust Chen in June this year because of Chen's "management incompetence" and a series of corruption scandals, involving his son-in-law, his wife and some of his senior aides.

The attempt failed because all "lawmakers" from Chen's DPP boycotted the vote, leaving only 133 to cast their votes.

Taiwan's anti-Chen campaigners announced on Friday that, from Saturday,they will stop organizing round-the-clock protests and small-scale rallies will be held at night instead.

Source: Xinhua