Cross-Strait Roundtable Forum Association chairman Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) yesterday called for an alliance to improve the chances of an opposition candidate winning January’s presidential election after a survey by his organization found that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), was polling at less than 20 percent in every hypothetical matchup.
At an event in Taipei, Chang presented the results of the survey commissioned by the association, which had Hou third, at 18 percent, trailing Vice President William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at 35.4 percent and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) at 33.3 percent.
Should Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) — who has not announced his candidacy — join the race as an independent, Ko would drop 7.4 percentage points and Hou 1.8 percentage points, said Chang, who is deputy director of the KMT Central Policy Committee and has served as Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister and a legislator.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
In a four-way race, Lai led with 32.4 percent support, Ko was second (25.9 percent), Hou third (16.2 percent) and Gou fourth (12.6 percent), Chang said.
If Gou and Ko were to run on the same ticket, the duo would receive 34.8 percent support, only slightly behind Lai’s 35.6 percent, but ahead of Hou’s 17.4 percent, he said.
Support rates for political parties had the DPP at 24 percent, followed by the KMT (19 percent), the TPP (15.3 percent), the New Power Party (3.1 percent) and the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (1.8 percent), the survey showed.
Chang said that he and other senior KMT figures are worried, because Hou did not reach 20 percent support in any scenario, while a Ko-Gou ticket would challenge Lai.
That pairing would be the pan-blue camp’s best chance in the presidential race, he said.
An alliance of opposition parties would give them the best chance of winning, he said, adding that if it does not unite, a win for the pan-blue camp would be highly unlikely.
“Gou would play a key role if he were to pair up with a candidate or run as an independent,” Chang said, adding that Hou needs to “improve his public discourse, and present policies and a vision for the nation’s development.”
“My heart chilled upon seeing the survey’s results, as Hou has been last in all of the recent surveys,” political scientist Chao Chun-shan (趙春山) said. “I have no idea what KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) is aiming for, or maybe he has a secret plan up his sleeve to help Hou win.”
Chu should release the results of the KMT’s internal surveys, Chao said.
The Cross-Strait Roundtable Forum Association poll, which was conducted by the Taipei-based Quickseek Poll Center, garnered 1,071 valid responses in its nationwide telephone survey of people aged 20 or older from Friday last week to Monday.
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