Two polls conducted by different media outlets both suggested yesterday that Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds a large lead over her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) opponent in the year-end municipality election.
The 60-year-old mayor beat fellow party contender Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) on Wednesday in the DPP’s internal polling.
She is likely to face off against KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who leads the KMT polls.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily’s opinion poll, released yesterday, showed support for Chen at 53 percent — a 26 percentage point lead over Huang at 27 percent.
The poll was based on the responses of 861 voters in the Kaohsiung area.
A separate poll carried out by the United Daily News suggested Chen enjoyed an approval rating of 53 percent, while Huang has just 23 percent.
The poll gathered 805 responses with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
While Chen did not publicly respond to the news yesterday, Huang was quick to point out that the lopsided poll numbers could be due to the fact that Kaohsiung City is still dotted with Chen advertisements, left over from her nomination battle with Yang.
Huang, who is 57 years old and has a degree from Kaohsiung’s National Sun Yat-sen University, is one of the longest serving legislators from Kaohsiung City, with six terms under her belt in addition to holding a number of party posts.
However, Chen has been riding high in opinion polls since the opening of Kaohsiung City’s MRT system and the success of the World Games last summer. She also holds a degree from National Sun Yat-sen University and formally served as head of the Council of Labor Affairs.
The elections for Greater Kaohsiung, a merger between Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County, will take place Nov. 27, with the newly elected mayor officially sworn in on Dec. 25.
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