Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday urged Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and his administration to improve their performance after criticizing his low approval rating in recent polls.
DPP Taipei City councilors Chou Wei-yo (周威佑) and Wu Su-yao (吳思瑤) cited polls conducted by local media outlets over the past two years when comparing Hau’s low approval rating with that of Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋).
“Hau’s performance is not much better than Chou Hsi-wei’s. His approval ratings are terribly low in different polls conducted in comparison with other local government heads or with other party politicians in the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT],” Wu said in a press conference at the Taipei City Council.
In a January poll by the China Times on the performance and approval ratings of local government heads, about 500 Taipei residents gave Hau 61 points out of 100. His rating was the third worst in the poll, followed by Chou Hsi-wei’s 60 points and Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-cheng’s (鄺麗貞) 58 points. Hau, Chou and Kuang are all members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In another poll by CommonWealth magazine last year, Hau’s performance fell from No. 8 to No. 17 out of the 23 local government heads, the councilor said.
Taipei City Research Development and Evaluation Commission statistics show that Hau’s approval rating fell from 55 percent in 2007 to 52 percent last year. However, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) approval rating increased from 41 percent to 65 percent last year, statistics from the Kaohsiung City Research Development and Evaluation Commission showed.
“Taipei is the capital city and enjoys more resources than other cities and counties. However, our mayor’s performance is as poor as Chou Hsi-wei and Kuang’s. He should reflect upon his low approval rating,” Chou Wei-yo said.
Chou Hsi-wei’s low approval rating has prompted media speculation that the KMT could dissuade him from seeking re-election in the year-end election.
Hau has acknowledged his poor approval rating since taking office two years ago, attributing the low numbers to the lack of promotion efforts initiated by the city government.
Hau defended his achievements in improving Tamsui River water quality and public safety, and vowed to promote municipal policies.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS