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
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