A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted from Nov. 19 through last Tuesday. The margin of error for the poll is 2.99 percentage points.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The timing of the poll means voters were queried about their preferences after the TPP and KMT said they had intended to form a joint ticket. The survey was conducted too early to capture the reaction to the talks later collapsing.
Ko and Hou each officially registered as presidential candidates on Friday, ending any prospect that they might share a ticket. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) dropped out of the race as an independent candidate the same day.
Ko’s emergence as the leading candidate in this latest poll, the first time that he has beaten Lai in a survey by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, underscores how unpredictable the race has been.
Positioning himself as an outsider looking to topple the traditional parties, Ko has been especially popular among young and well-educated urban voters. The foundation described him as “a horrible nightmare” for the DPP and KMT.
Underscoring how close the race is, other polls show different results.
According to local media reports, online news outlet My-formosa.com head Wu Tsu-chia (吳子嘉), said late on Sunday that a poll conducted last Monday through Thursday, showed Lai leading with 31.9 percent, Hou in second at 30 percent and Ko at 26 percent.
A TVBS poll conducted Friday last week through Sunday showed Lai leading with 34 percent, Hou in second at 31 percent and Ko in third at 23 percent.
A poll released yesterday by the World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) and the Taiwan National Security Association showed that 31.4 percent of respondents supported Lai, 27.3 percent supported Ko and 26.6 percent supported Hou.
The survey was conducted from Monday to Wednesday last week, when the negotiations on forming a joint ticket between Ko and Hou resulted in disputes over polling interpretations.
The TPP and the KMT drawing public attention to the negotiation might have driven up the support rates for their candidates in the survey, WUFI chairman Chen Nan-tien (陳南天) said.
Additional reporting by Liu Tzu-hsuan
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS