"If you have guts, bar me from getting the ballot papers," Chen said, referring to Hau's Friday threat that anyone, including the president, would not be able to vote if they fail to observe the "two-stop" procedures to be adopted by Taipei.
"Has Taipei City gone independent?" said Chen. "What kind of mayor is he? How come he's so naive?"
The president said the "one-stop" process -- decided on by the Central Election Commission (CEC) -- cannot be violated, and he vowed to check out the ballots following the CEC rules.
"I don't believe Hau has three heads and six arms to block me from voting," Chen said, citing a Chinese saying that used to described the power of a person.
But Hau remarked that Chen did not mean what he said "in a fit of anger," and he believes the president will eventually calm and observe the "two-stop" rules.
The mayor stressed that the city's election affairs will not be designed to give any individual or party any privileges.
"I hope President Chen is not thinking that he will be given privileges," Hau from the main opposition Kuomintang said.
He also remarked that Taipei City has not plans to go independent, but that he hopes the central government -- under the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party -- is not planning to "impose martial law."
The mayor Friday warned that Chen and any other voters who fail to observe the "two-stop" voting procedure for the Jan. 12 legislative elections and referendums will lose their right to vote in the capital city.
Chen and other DPP leaders, including its presidential hopeful Frank Hsieh, who are registered voters in Taipei, will be seen as giving up their voting rights if they refuse to follow the two-stop arrangements, warned Hau.
The KMT mayor and his counterparts from 17 other opposition-held cities and counties are defying the CEC's "one-stop" format.
CEC Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung has threatened election officials and workers with criminal charges if they fail to implement the "one-stop" format for the legislative elections and referendums taking place on the same day.
But KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou said the central government should not threaten civil servants as if it is a crime syndicate.
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While paying respects to deities at a temple in Xindian, Taipei County, President Chen Shui-bian again dares Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin to block him from casting his ballot if he refuses to join all other voters by following voting ...
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Ma questioned Chen's claims that the two-stop arrangements are illegal and unconstitutional, pointing out that the two-stop format was used in the 2004 presidential election and referendum held on the same day.
His DPP contender called for a truce, saying the dispute must be settled through negotiations between the two sides.
"The government must hold peaceful elections and promote the rule of law. Its work is not to fan confrontation between its people," said Hsieh.
Vice President Annette Lu commented that there is only "one set of law," and urged both sides not to "play with the law like that."
KMT Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said the most important issues about elections are the process of vote-counting and the final outcome, not the voting procedure.
KMT legislative whip Kuo Shu-chun described the president as "crazy" for repeatedly making strong verbal reactions to protesters, civil servants and local government chiefs.
But she said Hsieh's and Lu's comments made a little more sense.
Kuo agreed with Lu that there is indeed only "one set of laws," which she said is the one governing a "two-stop" format decided by the CEC in 2004.
Chao Shu-chien, a CEC member close to the opposition People First Party, Friday criticized the election body's chairman for his threats of criminal charges against civil servants disobeying the one-stop rules.
He claimed that local election officials are allowed to stage "proper" resistance to the CEC's unreasonable demand, while it is "improper" for the CEC to force its decision by handing down an administrative order.
He cited the election law as authorizing local election officials to make relevant arrangements for voting, and CEC has no authority over these arrangements.
Chao said Chang could end up facing criminal charges because of the threat he issued.
The DPP camp is arguing that the KMT is resisting the "one-stop" voting process out of fear that the referendum concerning the main opposition party's assets might pass.
Each voter will receive two ballots for the legislative elections, and two others for two separate referendums -- one on the recovery of the KMT's "ill gotten" assets, and the other on the anti-corruption campaign.
The CEC's one-stop process will hand out all four ballots to each voter arriving to vote, which observers say will increase the turnout for the referendums.
But the opposition insist on a two-stop process, during which voters will obtain the legislative ballots and cast them first, before moving on to the next desk to receive the referendum ballots.
DPP Legislator Wang Tuoh has claimed that the 18 defiant local governments are trying to block people from pursuing the KMT assets so that the opposition party could have the money to buy votes in the March 2008 presidential poll.