President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) average approval rating has stayed below 30 percent since his election on March 22 last year because of public frustration with poor government performance, a poll conducted by a local news channel showed yesterday.
The telephone poll of 1,012 adults on Wednesday and Thursday by the pan-blue-leaning TVBS showed that satisfaction with Ma had dropped from 41 percent on his inauguration on May 20 to 29 percent prior to the anniversary of his election victory today.
BELOW 30
Ma’s approval rating has remained below 30 percent since four months into his administration.
The station’s poll in September showed his approval rating at 28 percent. Vice President Vincent Siew’s (蕭萬長) approval rate was 26 percent, the poll showed.
DISAPPROVAL
The president’s disapproval rating rose to 49 percent from 44 percent last year, while 50 percent of respondents called for a Cabinet reshuffle to improve government performance.
Only 34 percent of respondents said the government was leading the nation in the right direction, while 47 percent said they would still vote for Ma rather than his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) if given a second chance.
Another poll conducted by Global Views magazine published on Thursday also found Ma’s approval rate to be 28.6 percent, a 5.9 percent drop from last month. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said they disapproved of the president’s performance.
The telephone survey, conducted between last Sunday and Tuesday on 1,005 adults, also found that the president’s trust index dropped from 44.2 percent last month to 40.5 percent this month.
The public’s frustration with the performance of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators was also growing, with the KMT legislators’ disapproval rating increasing to 61.5 percent, the poll showed.
PLUMMEtING
Pollsters said the plummeting approval rate for both Ma and the KMT could be related to the disappointing effect of the government’s consumer voucher scheme, growing unemployment and the nation’s economic decline.
At a separate setting yesterday, Hsieh issued harsh criticism of Ma’s performance.
ANNIVERSARY
Saying that today marked the first anniversary of his failed bid in the presidential election last year, Hsieh said that “Ma’s performance was so poor” that he felt he needed to come forward and point it out.
Hsieh panned Ma, saying he knew no shame, and slammed him for failing to deliver on his “6-3-3” campaign promise and for coming up with lies and excuses to cover up poor governance.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SU YONG-YUAN
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but