The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday downplayed Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei’s (周錫瑋) low approval rating, saying the situation was not as bad as the media had portrayed.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) dismissed media reports that Chou lacked popular support, emphasizing that the public “could feel the efforts Chou had made recently.”
Wu said that he had seen six or seven polls, but he did not see the one reported by the Chinese-language United Daily News or any that was similar to it.
PHOTO: CNA
Wu made the remarks in response to a report the United Daily News published yesterday that said a recent KMT poll showed Chou's approval rating 36 percentage points lower than that of former Taipei County commissioner Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The KMT would suffer a resounding defeat if the party nominated Chou to run against Su, the report said, adding that the KMT would decide whether to ditch Chou within a month.
The report said that the KMT had conducted four opinion polls between December and this month.
The polls showed that Chou’s approval rating was steadily declining, the report said, lagging behind Su’s.
The report also said that the poll indicated Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) might be the only KMT candidate who could beat Su.
Wu yesterday said that a party primary would decide the nominee.
Although the process was complicated, Wu said such a democratic mechanism must be followed.
A more convenient way might be to let the party chairman decide, but he could not do that, Wu said.
Aspirants must go through opinion polls and a party member vote. Polls count for 70 percent of the total score, while member votes make up the remaining 30 percent.
KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said that the media report was not true and that it had been long time since the party had conducted an opinion poll.
Wu said earlier polls were “old, incorrect, incomplete and even distorted and inflated.”
Wu said he was curious about why the newspaper cited and twisted the old numbers even though media outlets had already released new polls.
“All I can say about those numbers reported in the paper is that they are different from what I know,” he said.
When asked about the gap between Chou and Su, Wu said Su was a contender, but added that Su’s popularity might be overrated.
It was unlikely the party would exclude Chou from the race, he said, because Chou was an asset in Taipei County that the party cherished.
At a separate press conference, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Hsiao Ching-tien (蕭景田) called the poll “problematic.”
KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福), who was also present, dismissed the survey as nothing but a “rumor.”
He urged fellow KMT members to stop fueling controversy.
But KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said it was impossible for anyone to manipulate a poll, adding that the party headquarters should take the result seriously.
Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進), who has expressed interest in running for Taipei County commissioner, urged party headquarters to make public its primary regulations as soon as possible so that aspirants would know what rules to follow.
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