The violence at the pan-blue rally on April 10 has caused the approval ratings of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
According to the poll, Lien's approval rating has dropped to 28 percent from the 40 percent recorded prior to the pan-blue rally on March 27, while Soong's approval rating has dropped to 27 percent, from 38 percent recorded before March 27.
On the other hand, President Chen Shui-bian's (
The poll was conducted by telephone among 1,000 respondents.
The poll results also showed that 57 percent of respondents disapproved of a possible pan-blue rally on May 19.
As to the approval ratings of political parties, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) scored the highest approval rating at 39 percent, followed by the 37 percent of the KMT and 25 percent of the PFP.
On the question of whether Lien should take responsibility for the pan-blue camp's failure to win the presidential election and resign as chairman of the KMT, respondents had different views. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said that Lien should give up his chairmanship, with 21 percent saying that he does not necessarily have to step down.
A further 14 percent said that Lien should not be held responsible for the pan-blue camp's failure to win the presidential election.
As to the question of whether the KMT should go through a transfer of leadership from the older leaders to younger ones, where the young refers to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and KMT Deputy Chairman and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), 50 percent of respondents was in favor of this idea while 14 percent opposed it.
On the question of whether the KMT and PFP should merge into one single political party, 20 percent of respondents agreed while 16 percent felt that it was a feasible idea, whereas 22 percent were not in favor of the idea.
On the question of which party's legislative candidates respondents would vote for, 47 percent of respondents were undecided and said that they would have to see which candidates would be available in their districts.
Among respondents who have already made up their minds, 10 percent said they would vote for DPP candidates, 12 percent for KMT candidates, 5 percent for PFP candidates and 1 percent for Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) candidates.
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