Public opinion polls released yesterday showed that independent Taipei mayoral hopeful Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) remain head and shoulders above their respective opponents in the run-up to the year-end elections, while Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) has erased his deficit in the rankings.
The polls in the three constituencies were conducted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
Ko is leading Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei matoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) with 44.33 percent to 32.82 percent, in a poll conducted on Friday, while Chu of the KMT kept a double-digit lead in support rates, with 48.98 percent to the 37.8 percent posted by his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rival, former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), in a poll conducted between July 5 and Monday last week.
With support from the pan-green camp, Ko increased his advantage over Lien, former Taipei EasyCard Co chairman and son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), from 10.6 percentage points in a similar poll last month to 11.5 percentage points as Sean Lien is struggling to revitalize his campaign in Taipei.
Former DPP lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄), who announced his Taipei mayoral bid on June 13, ranked third at 9.36 percent and award-winning screenwriter Neil Peng (馮光遠) was fourth at 2.58 percent, with 10.91 percent of respondents declining to vote.
Analysts said that Shen, who has switched his political allegiance to the pan-blue camp after withdrawing from the DPP, could be a spoiler for Lien.
In response to the poll, Ko said support rates “rise and fall like the stock market index” and he would not interpret the surveys on a daily basis.
Lien said he had seen the results of several polls and they all differed, adding that his campaign would not be affected by them.
In the New Taipei City race, Chu remained far ahead of Yu with a 11.2-percentage point lead, but saw his advantage evaporate by almost 20 percentage points in a month, the poll showed. In a poll conducted by the Apple Daily last month, Chu led Yu by almost 30 percentage points, 53.47 percent to 25.6 percent.
A poll in Taoyuan County found that Wu appeared to have survived a slump last month, when he was hurt by a corruption scandal involving his deputy, Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文), and trailed DPP candidate Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) by 5.5 percentage points.
According to the survey, Wu is hanging on to a small lead — 42.53 percent to 39.6 percent — over Cheng, which fell closely within the margin of error, with 17.77 percent of respondents undecided.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we