Two polls released yesterday put President Chen Shui-bian (
The latest poll from Taiwan Thinktank, which commissioned the Shan Shui polling firm to conduct the survey, found that Chen had a 0.9 percent lead over Lien, with 40.4 percent support compared with Lien's 39.5 percent.
"It is the first time for Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) to win support over 40 percent, which is Chen's highest ever performance rating," Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political analyst and an assistant fellow of politics at Academia Sinica, said yesterday.
"Meanwhile, support for Lien and his running mate [PFP Chairman] James Soong (宋楚瑜) has also risen, which means the two groups of presidential candidates are running neck and neck in the polls," Hsu said.
In other words, Hsu said, the percentage of the undecided voters had been reduced, falling to 20.1 percent. According to the poll, most undecided voters are young people.
About 22.1 percent of voters from 20 to 29 years of age said that they will not vote.
"Young voters' support will definitely be the cake that the candidates contend for," Hsu said.
Hsu added the rival camps have been courting young people by touting an all-volunteer military.
Hsu said the two camps would be working to cement current support and win over undecided voters.
He added that negative campaigning would be another critical factor in the election.
Hsu said that fugitive and former Tuntex Group chairman Chen Yu-hao's (陳由豪) accusations about Chen Shui-bian were an example. But he added that this incident had little impact on Chen Shui-bian's re-election since Chen Yu-hao failed to provide evidence of his claims.
The nationwide telephone poll of 1,126 people was taken from Thursday to Saturday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.92 percentage points.
Central Election Commission regulations state that election polls cannot be released less than 10 days before the vote.
A poll conducted by students at Shih Hsin University was also released yesterday.
The survey showed no significant difference in support for Chen and Lien. It put support for Chen at 27. 3 percent and support for Lien at 27.1 percent. About 30 percent of students were undecided.
However, about 38.8 percent of students said they will not vote in the presidential election and about 29.2 percent of students said they will not vote in the referendum.
The poll questioned 1,152 college students who studied in the north of the country.
Chen I-shen (陳儀深), a research fellow of the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, said yesterday that society should examine why college students are indifferent to politics and why they have little desire to understand the society in which they live.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS