Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has a small lead over President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the presidential election campaign, a poll released yesterday by Taiwan Thinktank showed.
According to the poll conducted by the group on Thursday and Friday, support for Tsai was 39.6 percent, against Ma’s 38.7 percent, giving Tsai a 0.9 percentage point lead in the presidential battle.
Support for People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) was 11.7 percent, the poll showed.
While 52.4 percent of respondents said they admired Ma, 42.7 percent said they did not; 62.6 percent admired Tsai, with 29 percent saying they did not; and 40.5 percent admired Soong, while 49.7 percent did not.
As to perceptions of Ma’s performance, 57.8 percent said they were not satisfied with his performance, while 39.8 percent were satisfied.
Ma had a lead over Tsai in the north and center of the country, with his support in northern Taiwan at 38.4 percent versus Tsai’s 36.1 percent. In central Taiwan, support for Ma was 41.2 percent, against Tsai’s 40 percent.
Tsai has a large lead in southern Taiwan, with a support rate of 46.5 percent versus Ma’s 32 percent in Yunlin, Chiayi and Greater Tainan, and support of 47.5 percent versus Ma’s 32.5 percent in Greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political scientist at Soochow University and a member of the think tank, said the poll suggested that overall support for Ma, Tsai and Soong in the presidential race had not changed much since the previous two polls the group conducted.
“As to the public’s admiration for the three candidates, apparently Taiwanese have divided views on Ma and Soong. Either they love them or they hate them. The public is more neutral about Tsai. Even those who won’t vote for her do not hate her,” he told a press conference.
PFP legislative candidate Chen Cheng-sheng (陳振盛) said the PFP’s polls indicated that Tsai took a 3 percentage point lead over Ma last month.
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,
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
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS