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Poll says performances in debates not all-important

A majority of people polled in a recent survey said presidential candidates' performances in debates would not affect their support for them.

The first televised presidential debate is scheduled for Sunday and the second debate is scheduled for March 9. In addition to the televised debates, the Central Election Commission will also hold four live TV presentations, in which the presidential and vice presidential candidates will present their platforms.

The poll, commissioned by the Taiwan Thinktank and conducted by Focus Survey Research from Feb. 13 to last Saturday, showed that more than 63 percent of the respondents said that the candidates' performance at the debates would not affect their support for the candidate of their preference, while 28 percent said it might.

The survey also found that more than 43 percent of respondents believe Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) would perform best in the debates, while only 16.7 percent said his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would do better.

Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), a political science professor at Soochow University, said that Ma was popular among respondents aged between 20 and 29 and predicted he would do a decent job in the debates.

Ma was also popular among female respondents, although respondents said Hsieh was a better mayor, the poll indicated.

While overall respondents said Hsieh had a better performance during his stint as Kaohsiung mayor, more women and young respondents said Ma was better.

The survey also indicated that more people supported the DPP's referendum proposal, at 44 percent, than that proposed by the KMT, at about 37 percent.

While the KMT is mulling whether to boycott the two referendum proposals, nearly 48 percent of the respondents said they would not accept it if the KMT decided to do so, while 33 percent said they would.

Regarding Hsieh's questioning of Ma's US green card status, more than 38 percent of the respondents said it was inappropriate for a presidential candidate holding a green card to be the nation's leader, more than 34 percent said it was appropriate and 24 percent said they did not know.

A majority of the respondents said Ma and his wife should make public information regarding their green cards and nearly 42 percent said they did not find Ma's crisis management capability satisfactory.

However, when asked whether the green card controversy would change their support for the candidate of their choice, more than 65 percent said it would not, while over 19 percent said it would.
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