TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taipei High Court on Tuesday morning (Dec. 17) announced that it has rejected former Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Ting Shou-chung's (丁守中) appeal to have the 2018 Taipei mayoral election nullified.

In last year's election, Ting lost to independent Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) by only 3,254 votes and demanded a recount, which the Central Election Commission complied with. However, the recount ended with an even larger advantage for Ko, seeing him garner 313 more ballots than the original count.

After his appeal was rejected by the Taipei District Court, the former lawmaker decided to appeal the election result again, pointing out that it is illegal to start counting votes while voters are still casting their ballots. Ting and his lawyers claimed that vote counts were being shown on several TV stations before the election cut-off time, which they said could have significantly influenced voters' decisions, reported UDN.

The Taipei High Court noted that there were only 58 controversial votes and that adding them to those cast in favor of Ting would not have changed the outcome. According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, Ting will not be able to appeal again after Tuesday's ruling.