Two polls released yesterday put President Chen Shui-bian (
The latest poll from Taiwan Thinktank, which commissioned the Shan Shui polling firm to conduct the survey, found that Chen had a 0.9 percent lead over Lien, with 40.4 percent support compared with Lien's 39.5 percent.
"It is the first time for Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) to win support over 40 percent, which is Chen's highest ever performance rating," Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political analyst and an assistant fellow of politics at Academia Sinica, said yesterday.
"Meanwhile, support for Lien and his running mate [PFP Chairman] James Soong (宋楚瑜) has also risen, which means the two groups of presidential candidates are running neck and neck in the polls," Hsu said.
In other words, Hsu said, the percentage of the undecided voters had been reduced, falling to 20.1 percent. According to the poll, most undecided voters are young people.
About 22.1 percent of voters from 20 to 29 years of age said that they will not vote.
"Young voters' support will definitely be the cake that the candidates contend for," Hsu said.
Hsu added the rival camps have been courting young people by touting an all-volunteer military.
Hsu said the two camps would be working to cement current support and win over undecided voters.
He added that negative campaigning would be another critical factor in the election.
Hsu said that fugitive and former Tuntex Group chairman Chen Yu-hao's (陳由豪) accusations about Chen Shui-bian were an example. But he added that this incident had little impact on Chen Shui-bian's re-election since Chen Yu-hao failed to provide evidence of his claims.
The nationwide telephone poll of 1,126 people was taken from Thursday to Saturday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.92 percentage points.
Central Election Commission regulations state that election polls cannot be released less than 10 days before the vote.
A poll conducted by students at Shih Hsin University was also released yesterday.
The survey showed no significant difference in support for Chen and Lien. It put support for Chen at 27. 3 percent and support for Lien at 27.1 percent. About 30 percent of students were undecided.
However, about 38.8 percent of students said they will not vote in the presidential election and about 29.2 percent of students said they will not vote in the referendum.
The poll questioned 1,152 college students who studied in the north of the country.
Chen I-shen (陳儀深), a research fellow of the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica, said yesterday that society should examine why college students are indifferent to politics and why they have little desire to understand the society in which they live.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
RSS