A survey of potential candidates in the race for New Taipei City (新北市) mayor next year showed incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) would enjoy a support rating of 58 percent if he seeks re-election, while his rival from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), former DPP premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), had 19 percent.
The poll, released by the Chinese-language United Daily News (UDN) yesterday, also showed that New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) would have a 44 percent support rating if he were to represent the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the election, while support for Yu would be 29 percent.
Of the possible KMT candidates in the race, 49 percent of respondents said they would support Chu running for re-election, 13 percent favored Hou and about 5 percent wanted Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) for the post, the survey showed.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Chu, one of the KMT’s potential presidential candidates in 2016, is said to be arranging for Hou to run for New Taipei City mayor, while he skips the race to prepare for the presidential election. He declined to confirm yesterday whether he would seek re-election next year.
“I should focus my efforts on city development at the moment and not talk about the election. I will talk about it when the time is right, and I believe New Taipei City residents agree with me,” he said.
The survey was conducted from Dec. 16 to Dec. 19, polling 1,001 New Taipei City residents.
Asked about Chu’s conduct as mayor, 62 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with his performance, while 19 percent said they were not.
Chu enjoyed a high support rating of 89 percent among pan-blue voters; 33 percent of pan-green supporters also said they would vote for Chu if he decided to seek re-election.
Yu, on the other hand, had 57 percent of the pan-green voters, while only 4 percent of pan-blue voters said they would support him, the poll showed.
KMT spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said the party would not comment on the poll results. The KMT will stick to its nomination schedule for the seven-in-one local elections next year, and the nomination procedures for New Taipei City will be completed in the final round of nominations along with other special municipalities, Yang said.
Meanwhile, Yu’s office questioned the authenticity of the public opinion poll, saying that the former premier’s support rating in the survey was far lower than the party’s support base of about 45 percent in the municipality.
“A number of recent public opinion polls conducted by various media outlets look strange and seem to have been conducted with a hidden agenda and implications,” said Meng Yi-chao (孟義超), the former premier’s spokesperson.
Meng did not elaborate on what those implications were, but said the poll appeared to have been carried out to influence the KMT’s New Taipei City mayoral primary.
Yu is the third DPP politician to have complained about the surveys conducted by the UDN Group over the past two days. Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and DPP Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財), both aspirants in the DPP primary for Taipei mayor, on Monday also accused a UDN poll of being unfair and biased.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS