Opinion on who won Sunday’s debate between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was split after neither managed to land a knock out blow during the 150-minute confrontation.
Polls released yesterday suggested that the debate solidified support among party lines, but did not result in any large shifts in support either for or against signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
The Taiwan Thinkthink said that despite Ma’s better-than-expected performance, voters still remained more impressed with Tsai’s more measured presentation.
A poll released by the think tank, generally perceived as more sympathetic with the pan-green camp, found that 44.2 percent thought Tsai had performed best, while 39.8 percent of respondents favored Ma’s performance. The survey also found that 43.8 percent sided with the opposition against signing a proposed trade pact with China and 38.4 percent were supported it.
An in-depth analysis of the poll results found a pronounced split along party lines after 85 percent of pan-green voters rejected an ECFA, while 80 percent of pan-blue voters rallied behind signing it.
A separate survey conducted after the debate by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) also found that more Taiwanese were against the proposed trade pact, reporting that 36 percent did not want to see the agreement signed, while 28 percent supported signing it.
Another instant poll taken following the debate by the DPP’s poll center suggested a roughly even match between the two, with the divide at 40.2 percent for Tsai and 39.9 percent for Ma.
Tsai’s slim win was mainly because of public concerns that the agreement would end up degrading Taiwan’s sovereignty, with 56.6 percent of those polled by the DPP saying that they did not believe Ma would stand up for Taiwan’s interests during the negotiations.
However, a number of Chinese-language newspapers perceived as more sympathetic with the pan-blue camp called the debate in favor of the president, who doubles as the chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Both the United Daily News and the China Times released polls showing that support for Ma’s performance was higher than for Tsai.
The United Daily News said that 42 percent of viewers supported Ma against 30 percent for Tsai. Another poll released by the newspaper said that Tsai would lose in an election against Ma by 11 percent if it were held tomorrow.
Results released by the China Times took it one step further, saying that 66.1 percent of those surveyed in an Internet poll supported Ma, with only 29.6 expressing support for the DPP chairperson.
Other Web sites ran a less scientific poll of public reactions following the debate. A poll of more than 8,600 respondents on the Internet portal Yahoo found support firmly in favor of Tsai, with 58.7 percent believing that she had a better debate performance than Ma, who garnered 34.2 percent.
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