Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has retained a more than 20-point lead over the presidential candidate fielded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), despite the party’s decision to replace Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), a Cross-Strait Policy Association poll released yesterday indicated.
Tsai was supported by 45.2 percent of those polled, giving her a 23.3-point lead over Chu who garnered 21.9 percent, with 13.8 percent of respondents backing People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜).
According to this and other association surveys, Tsai’s support is still about 40 percent, while Soong’s has dropped to a new low, giving the KMT’s presidential campaign a boost of 3.4 percentage points following its selection of Chu.
Photo: CNA
Among respondents who identify as pan-blue, 53.5 percent support Chu, showing a 7.8-percentage-point increase from an Oct. 7 poll conducted by the association.
Among pan-blue respondents, 23.6 percent said they would vote for Soong and 11.2 percent for Tsai, a 3-percentage-point and 1-percentage-point increase, respectively, from the previous survey.
In a head-to-head vote between Tsai and Chu, 54.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for Tsai while 27.2 percent for Chu.
Of those polled, 73.7 percent said Tsai had the best chance of becoming president. Only 8.7 percent thought Chu would win, while 2.1 percent said Soong would.
Regarding Chu’s decision to run for president even though he had promised to serve out his full term as New Taipei City mayor, 53.3 percent of respondents said they agreed he had betrayed his promise.
However, 41.1 percent said they agreed that Chu’s decision was made because he had no other choice in light of the party’s dismal election prospects.
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