Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) support rating has surpassed those of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) combined, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed.
The survey asked respondents who they would vote for if the elections were held tomorrow.
According to the poll, 42.1 percent of respondents said they would vote for Ko, 28.5 percent said they would vote for Ting and 11.6 percent said they would vote for Yao.
Photo: CNA
The poll found that 2.6 percent said they would vote for one of the two independent candidates, while 15.1 percent said they were undecided, unwilling to vote or refused to answer.
Foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said he was “shocked” that the results were similar to those of a poll conducted in February.
Ko’s support rating has dropped by 5.5 percent, Ting’s has increased by 3.3 percent and Yao’s has fallen by 4 percent since February, but Ko is still clearly in the lead, he said.
According to the poll, 55.4 percent of respondents who identified as KMT supporters said they would vote for Ting, while 35.2 percent said they would vote for Ko.
Of those who identified as DPP supporters, 50.1 percent said they would vote for Ko and 36.1 percent said they would vote for Yao, while 45.7 percent of median voters said they would vote for Ko, 14.3 percent for Ting and 6.6 percent for Yao.
The results show that KMT and DDP supporters are divided, and explains why Ko is leading the poll, You said.
The survey also found that Ko had an approval rating of 55.7 percent and a disapproval rating of 36.2 percent, which was also similar to the February poll. His approval rating fell by 1.1 percent and disapproval rating dropped by 3.2 percent since then.
However, when respondents were specifically asked about Ko’s handling of the Taipei Dome project, 60.1 percent disapproved, while only 27.5 percent approved.
When presented with a scenario in which Ko loses the mayoral race and runs for president in 2020, only 28.1 percent approved, the survey found.
When asked if they would approve of a scenario in which Ko wins the mayoral race and runs for president in 2020, 67.4 percent of respondents disapproved, while 21.9 percent approved.
Shih Hsin University Graduate Institute for Gender Studies professor Chen Yi-chien (陳宜倩) said there has not been substantial debate among the mayoral candidates on their core values and important issues, which makes the election uninteresting.
Chen expressed the hope that there would be real discussions on labor, gender and other issues before election day.
Ko campaign office spokesman Lin Hsiao-chi (林筱淇) said Ko’s diligence in performing his mayoral duties and caring for the public, as well as his practicality, has made an impression on Taipei residents, adding that political party affiliation is not the residents’ only consideration when voting.
Ting said the results are for reference only, adding that he would continue trying to win support.
The telephone survey was prepared by the foundation and conducted from Sunday to Tuesday last week by Focus Survey Research on eligible voters.
It collected 1,074 valid samples and has a confidence level of 95 percent and margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS