Anger at not being able to move into permanent homes has raised the awareness of many people previously disinterested in politics, Chen Hui-tse, head of the September 21 Victim Alliance support group told AFP.

"The turnout will be higher than expected. A lot of people cold to politics have cast their ballots,"

The aid was dispatched as Chinese prepared for the Lunar New Year celebration in February.

China's Red Cross Society on Friday dispatched four teams to distribute some 1.5 million yuan (181,000 dollars) worth of meat, flour and cooking oil to disaster-stricken areas of Qinghai, Shaanxi, Hebei, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet, a Red Cross

The first quake hit at 2:14 a.m. (1814 GMT Monday), with the epicenter located 26.5 kilometers (14.4 miles) east of Ilan city and 101.1 kilometers below the earth's surface.

The second tremor with a magnitude of 4.4 struck at 05:34 p.m. (0934 GMT).

Its epicenter was located 17.9 kilometers north of the eastern Hualien city and 15.1 kilometers below the earth's serface.

One quake measuring 5.2 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked southern Taiwan at 03:25 p.m. (0735 GMT), sending people running on to the streets and forcing school children into shelters.

The Seismology Center located the epicenter at 8.8 kilometers (5.46 miles) east of the Chiayi city in southern Taiwan.

A second quake measured at 4.6 struck

TAIPEI, Nov 2 (AFP) - Terrified Taiwanese fled from their homes for the third time in six weeks early Tuesday as the island was again rocked by a powerful earthquake.

But the quake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale caused minimal damage, unlike the two previous temblors which left more than 2,400 dead, 11,300 injured and 100,000 homeless.

Although the latest tremor was felt all over the island, damage reports were limited to power cuts and a damaged bridge in the eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien.

"We have not received any reports

1. After the devastating earthquake of 21 September 1999 which left more than 2,300 people dead and caused an estimated damage of USD 9.2 billion, another major earthquake hit the Chiayi area, situated about 220 kilometres southwest of Taipei. The tremor struck this morning at 10.19 a.m. local time (2.19 a.m. GMT) with its epicentre 2.5 kilometres northwest of Chiayi city (longitude 122.3 E, latitude 25.3N). The quake was followed by more than 60 aftershocks. According to local