An opinion poll by local media yesterday showed that former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was leading other candidates in the mayoral election in Sinbei City (新北市) later this year.
At the end of the year, Taipei County will become a directly administered city called Sinbei City, while Taichung City and County, Tainan City and County and Kaohsiung City and County will be merged into directly administered cities, in accordance with a decision by the Executive Yuan last year at the request of the cities and counties concerned.
A survey by the Chinese-language China Times put Su’s approval rate at 54 percent, while incumbent Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had 22 percent.
PHOTO: CNA
The poll showed that if Su were to run against Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT, he would have a 41 percent support rate against Chu’s 36 percent.
The poll also showed that if DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) were to run against Chou, Tsai would have a 40 percent approval rate while Chou would get 30 percent.
Su yesterday said he had yet to decide whether to run in the election.
He has been very active canvassing support for DPP candidates ahead of the Feb. 27 legislative by-election.
The survey was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday with 808 samples collected.
In other developments, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) of the DPP has broken his silence over his preferred candidate in the year-end election for the first mayor of the new municipality created by the merger of Taichung City and County.
Hsieh made public his support on Saturday for DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), saying he would be a perfect candidate.
Upon being informed of this, Lin said he would spare no effort in seeking the party’s nomination.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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