Survey indicates close presidential race on the cards

The gap between support ratings of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the opposition camp's pair of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) has narrowed, according to the results of a survey released yesterday.

The telephone poll of 1,134 randomly chosen adults -- conducted by the privately run Decision-Making Research Center from Feb. 17 to Feb. 19 -- ?found that 44.3 percent of the respondents would vote for the Lien-Soong ticket in the 2004 presidential election while 38.6 percent threw their support behind Chen. The rest of those interviewed didn't reply to the question.

It was the closest popularity gap between Chen and the Lien-Soong team in various public opinion polls conducted after the two opposition leaders announced Feb. 14 that their parties would cooperate in the next presidential election.

Analyzing the latest poll results, professor Liao Ta-chi (廖達琪) of National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung said the narrowing support gap indicated that competition between the two camps will be very fierce and that swing votes and campaign strategies will play key roles in the 2004 presidential race.