Public opinion polls released yesterday showed huge differences between results, with one showing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential tickets running neck-and-neck, while another suggested a margin of difference of about 20 percentage points.
The opinion polls were conducted after DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Friday announced the choice of DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) as her running mate for the January presidential election.
The DPP’s poll showed 44 percent of respondents supporting the pairing of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) with Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), while 43.6 percent supported Tsai and Su, DPP polling center director Chen Chun-lin (陳俊麟) said. Tsai’s support rate among those who expressed a strong likelihood of voting led Ma’s by 2.4 percent, Chen added.
In the same poll, 50.9 percent of respondents said Su’s selection was a plus for Tsai, while only 32.3 percent said Wu would be a good complement for Ma’s re-election bid.
In the survey, 56.8 percent of respondents said they liked Su as a vice-presidential candidate, while 40.2 percent preferred Wu. However, 46.7 percent of respondents said they disliked Wu, Chen said.
The poll collected 967 samples and has a 3.2 percent margin of error. Half of the samples were mobile phone users, Chen said, as a lot of people were traveling to their hometowns ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend when the poll was conducted.
Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the Chinese-language China Times showed that 44 percent of its respondents supported the Ma-Wu ticket, 10 percentage points higher than the Tsai-Su ticket.
If People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) enters the race, Ma would still lead Tsai by 7 percentage points, with Soong receiving 14 percent of support, the survey showed.
Su would be a plus, according to 26 percent of those polled by the China Times, with 38 percent saying the selection of Su as Tsai’s running mate would not have an impact on her campaign.
The China Times’ survey collected 1,013 samples and has a 3.1 percent margin of error.
However, a poll by the Chinese-language Apple Daily showed the Tsai-Su ticket enjoying a substantial lead over the Ma-Wu ticket, with 51.3 percent against 30.7 percent, while 13.3 percent of respondents were undecided.
The Apple Daily polled 466 valid responses.
Ma’s campaign office yesterday accused the DPP of manipulating polls for electoral purposes and said the KMT would not publish polls it conducted.
“Unlike the DPP, which always uses its polls as a campaign tool, the KMT only uses internal polls for our own reference,” Ma’s campaign office spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) said.
She said the KMT’s surveys have shown the Ma-Wu ticket steadily leading the polls against the Tsai-Su pairing, but the party would not make public the exact poll results for campaign purposes.
KMT spokesperson Lai Su-ju (賴素如) said the KMT took any poll results as a reference, but would not change its campaign strategies because of ups and downs in support for Ma and Wu.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
DEFENSIVE EDGE: The liaison officer would work with Taiwan on drones and military applications for other civilian-developed technologies, a source said A Pentagon unit tasked with facilitating the US military’s adoption of new technology is soon to deploy officials to dozens of friendly nations, including Taiwan, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is to send a representative to collaborate with Taiwan on drones and military applications from the semiconductor industry by the end of the year, the British daily reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “Drones will certainly be a focus, but they will also be looking at connecting to the broader civilian and dual-use ecosystem, including the tech sector,” one source was
RSS