The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) appears to be fighting an uphill battle in the lead-up to Kaohsiung's year-end mayoral election, according to results of an opinion poll released by Global Views magazine yesterday.
Survey
The monthly magazine conducted a survey on July 18-19, interviewing 852 adults aged 20 and over in the southern port city, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.
Respondents were asked whom they would vote for among three mayoral candidates representing the DPP, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).
The survey said 37.7 percent of respondents would vote for DPP candidate Chen Chu (陳菊), former chairwoman of the Council of Labor Affairs, while 56.2 percent said they favored KMT candidate Huang Chun-ying (黃俊英), a former deputy mayor of Kaohsiung. Only 6.1 percent indicated they would select the TSU candidate, Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明).
The poll results indicated that although the election is still five months away, 78 percent of voters have already formed their opinion.
KMT favored
Compared with results of a poll by Global Views magazine in May, support for Huang has risen -- from 33.6 percent to 43.5 percent. In sharp contrast, support for Chen has dropped from 32.5 percent to 29.5 percent, while support for Lo also decreased from 8.4 percent to 4.9 percent.
The results also show 51 percent of respondents preferred a candidate from a political party other than the DPP to be Kaohsiung's next mayor, while 24 percent favored the DPP retaining the mayorship.
Asked whom they would vote for as Kaohsiung city councilors, 41 percent indicated they would favor candidates of the pan-blue alliance of the KMT and the People First Party, while 20 percent said they would vote for a DPP or a TSU candidate.
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