Shareholders of Walt Disney Co. displayed their displeasure with their longtime leader Michael Eisner by withholding about 43% of the votes cast for his re-election to the board at a contentious shareholder meeting Wednesday.

The protest vote is a stunning rebuke of the media mogul, who has been chairman and chief executive since 1984. Eisner was the target of a three-month campaign by two dissident directors, including the nephew of Walt Disney, to have him removed from the venerable entertainment company.

According to preliminary figures released by the company, investors withheld voting about 771.7 million shares for Eisner of the 1.779 billion votes cast for the election. Disney has about 2.1 billion shares outstanding. Investors also withheld 428 million votes, or 24% of those cast, for George Mitchell, Disney's presiding director. Both men were running unopposed.
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