Most people do not favor President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) running for re-election, with barely a third supporting her election for a second term, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) National Policy Foundation said yesterday.
A foundation survey conducted from May 7 to Tuesday showed that Tsai’s disapproval rating outweighed her approval rating at 56 percent to 38.3 percent.
Moreover, only 29.8 percent of respondents were supportive of her second-term bid, while 52.8 percent were opposed, the poll showed.
“Tsai’s presidency has been autocratic, arrogant and incompetent, and our presidential approval poll shows that her path to being re-elected would be a difficult one,” foundation chief executive officer Kao Yuang-kuang (高永光) said. “Tsai could well become the first single-term Taiwanese president since the presidency became a directly elected office in 1996.”
Tsai’s approval rating has been consistently lower than most of her predecessors, including Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who commanded an approval rating of about 40 percent in the early part of his second term, he said.
While former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), of the KMT, maintained an approval of 23 percent during his re-election, the public had been more supportive of his campaign than Tsai’s, showing a disconnect between public approval and voting behavior at the time, he said.
However, public disapproval of Tsai’s performance and opposition to her re-election are nearly identical in the poll, indicating a direct correlation, he said.
A public backlash against the Tsai administration’s “attack” on institutions and the unpopularity of her policies are the main reasons for her low approval rating, Kao said, citing pension reform and the Control Yuan’s censuring of prosecutors as examples.
Tsai could have asked the Council of Grand Justices to decide whether its legalization of same-sex marriage in 2017 should take precedence over the passage of a referendum in November last year, when a majority voted in favor of retaining the Civil Code’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, he said.
Instead, Tsai forced the legalization of same-sex marriage through the legislature yesterday, he added.
“At the moment, the Democratic Progressive Party looks more like the undemocratically regressive party,” Kao said.
“A sign of Tsai’s weakness is former premier William Lai’s (賴清德) campaign for presidential nomination, which has survived despite Tsai’s best efforts to bury it,” Taipei City Councilor Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
RSS