Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) recorded his worst approval rating since he assumed the premiership in February last year, with 66 percent of respondents disapproving of his performance, a survey released by Taiwan Indicator Survey Research (TISR) showed yesterday.
The survey was conducted amid the ongoing tainted cooking oil controversy, which has sparked widespread public outrage.
The 66 percent disapproval marked a 4.3 percentage point rise compared with last month’s results, while the proportion of those who said he is doing a good job decreased by 4 percentage points, to 15.6 percent.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The poll also found dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance, at 73.6 percent, while only 14.4 percent said they were pleased. Additionally, 64.7 percent of respondents said they do not trust the president, while 19.3 percent of people said they do.
The results marked a 3.1 drop in approval for the president, while his detractors increased by 0.8 percentage points, compared with polls conducted in the latter half of last month.
On the economy, only 7.9 percent of respondents said the nation’s economy is strong, while a sweeping 83.5 percent majority said the economy is not doing well.
Compared with the polls conducted last month, the proportion of those who said that the economy is suffering fell by 3.4 percentage points, while the proportion saying otherwise rose 3 percentage points.
The poll showed that 47.3 percent said they could make ends meet, while 45.2 said they had trouble covering their expenses, compared with 47.5 percent “yes” against 43.4 percent “no” last month.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) approval rating dropped by 5 percentage points compared with last month, while its disapproval rating rose by 2.8 percentage points.
In contrast, the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) approval rating rose by 2.1 percentage points, while its disapproval rating fell by 4 percent, the poll showed.
In aggregate, the poll showed the gap in overall approval ratings between the KMT and the DPP has widened further, with that of the KMT decreasing by 2.3 percentage points to 36.3 percent, while that of the DPP hit 46.7 percent, a rise of 2.1 percentage points.
The poll collected 1,002 valid samples across the nation and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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