President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) popularity dropped for a second straight month, a poll by the Chinese-language Global Views magazine showed yesterday.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put Ma’s popularity at 30.1 percent, down 0.9 percentage points from last month. His disapproval rating also dropped 1.4 percent to stand at 55.6 percent.
Ma secured a mandate of 58.45 percent in the presidential election two years ago. However, his approval rating has mostly remained below 40 percent since then, reaching its highest level of 40.7 percent in June last year.
Center director Tai Li-an (戴立安) said that although Ma’s disapproval rating fell slightly this month, it did not translate into greater popularity.
“The public is seeing no major events happening after Taipei and Beijing signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA] in June,” he said. “Some might trust Ma, but they are not happy with his performance.”
Since the poll was conducted before Typhoon Fanapi hit the nation over the weekend and caused severe flooding in southern Taiwan, Tai said it remained to be seen whether this would affect public opinion.
The poll also showed that 41.4 percent of respondents did not trust Ma, against about 40 percent who did. As the difference between the two figures was small, Tai said it represented a divergence of public views on the issue.
Despite the uproar over the upcoming Taipei International Flora Exposition, Tai said the poll showed] the controversy had not had much impact on Ma’s trust index, although the event was awarded when Ma was Taipei mayor. Nor did the November local elections have any effect on levels of trust in Ma, Tai said.
On the performance of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, more than 58 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied, against 19.4 percent who said they were satisfied.
The poll, conducted between Wednesday and Friday, questioned 1,011 adults and had a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
In related news, Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for its attacks on the flora expo, saying the party used the same tactic when swine flu hit last year.
Lo said that had it not been for the DPP’s “relentless” efforts to “defame” the government’s plan to tackle the matter, more people would have been willing to receive a vaccine and more lives would have been saved.
Forty-six people in Taiwan have died of swine flu since the outbreak began last year.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS