SHANGHAI, Oct. 14 -- Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian yesterday survived a second vote aimed at ousting him from power after the opposition parties failed to amass enough support in the "Legislative Yuan," the Taiwan legislature.

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

On hearing the news, Ma Ying-jeou, chairman of Kuomintang, expressed regrets. He said the opposition would continue calls for Chen to step down if there was no development concerning Chen's alleged corruption.

The opposition KMT and PFP parties 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.

The anti-Chen campaigners announced yesterday that starting today they will stop organizing round-the-clock protests. Instead small-scale rallies will be held at night.

The decision came one day after the Taipei City police authority revoked their permits to demonstrate outside Chen's office compound between October 14 to 27.

The demonstrators will conduct sit-down protests from 6pm to 10pm.