A new poll on next year’s presidential election has Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) ahead against five potential Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) contenders.
The results of the poll conducted by the Taiwan Thinktank were released yesterday at a news conference in Taipei and show that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) would be the strongest opponent, given his support rating was just 3 percent less than Tsai’s.
Tsai received much more support if judged against Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and former department of health head Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) — who have registered for the KMT presidential primary — the poll found, with Tsai backed by 63.6 percent of respondents when compared to Hung, who was backed by 21.5 percent, and supported by 63.4 percent if up against Yuang, who was favored by 17.5 percent.
When polled against Wang, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) — none of whom have entered the KMT primary, but are still seen as possible “recruits” — Tsai beat Wang by 44.1 percent to 41.3 percent, Chu by 46.7 percent to 41 percent and Wu by 64.1 percent to 20.2 percent, the poll showed.
The think tank said that Wang, in a poll that pitted the five KMT members against each other, was backed by 38.2 percent of respondents, followed by Chu with 29 percent, while Wu attracted 6.2 percent support, Yaung 6 percent and Hung 5.4 percent.
Think tank deputy chief executive Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) said that Wang and Chu would be the strongest KMT candidates.
Conducted on Saturday last week, the poll surveyed people aged 20 or older and collected 1,079 valid samples, with a 95 percent confidence level and a marginal error of plus or minus 3 percent.
When asked later about the poll results, Wang declined to comment.
“I do not know,” the legislative speaker said when reporters asked him about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) comment that he hoped that the KMT’s presidential candidate would be the one most likely to win, and that Wang has the highest poll numbers among possible KMT candidates.
Meanwhile, Hung, who was backed by less than 30 percent of respondents in a similar poll conducted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily, said that she expects a turnaround toward the end of the presidential campaign.
She cited former US president Bill Clinton’s low popularity when he began his race against then-US president George H.W. Bush and the Conservative Party’s victory in the British general election this month as examples of politicians who came from behind to win victories.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS