Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) high approval rating of nearly 70 percent is believed to have helped boost President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) rating toward 50 percent, while more than half of Taiwanese support a proposal to amend the Constitution, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwan Style Foundation showed.
Lai, who assumed the post on Sept. 8, has garnered the approval of 68.8 percent of respondents, while 23 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
Regarding Lai’s ability to revive the economy, 63.5 percent said they are confident, compared with 30.2 percent who said they were not, while 65.2 percent think his executive ability is good, compared with 21 percent who do not agree.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The premier is heeding public opinion, according to 60.2 percent of respondents, while 30.3 percent said he is not.
Tsai’s approval rating stands at 49.7 percent, while her disapproval rating is at 45.1 percent. Just over half of respondents at 54.8 percent said they support Tsai, while 40.4 percent said they do not.
Tsai’s satisfaction rating had fallen to a record low of 18.4 percent in a poll released in May by Taiwan Democracy Watch ahead of the first anniversary of her presidency.
“In terms of polling performance, the [administration] has weathered an unstable period after Lai’s inauguration,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said.
The poll suggests that controversies surrounding the administration’s reform policies have ended, while efficiently implementing the policies is to be the next challenge, foundation board director Wang Zhin-sheng (王智盛) said.
When asked about a proposal by Tsai and the DPP to amend the Constitution, 56 percent of respondents said they approve, while 22.1 percent disapproved.
Half of the respondents opposed lowering the minimum voting age from 20 to 18, while 46.8 percent approved of the potential constitutional amendment.
Human rights protection should be codified into the Constitution, 69.8 percent of the respondents said, but 17.3 percent said it is not necessary.
Seventy-two percent believe that legislative elections should be revised to prevent unequal representation, while 17.8 percent said the revision is not necessary.
While 80.9 percent of respondents are in favor of a proposal put forth by Tsai in her Double Ten National Day address to hold a political party leaders’ meeting, 13.6 percent disapproved.
Regarding cross-strait policy, two-thirds of respondents said they support Tsai’s statement that the nation would continue to show goodwill and stay true to its promises without returning to a confrontational relationship or succumbing to Beijing’s pressure, while 24.9 percent said they disapproved.
The poll conducted on Thursday and Friday collected 1,072 valid samples and has a confidence level of 95 percent with a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS