Public trust in President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) improved slightly this month, while trust in Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her party dropped, a poll by the Chinese-language Global Views magazine showed yesterday.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put trust in Ma at 45.2 on a scale of 100, up 1.3 points from last month. However, this still marks a dramatic fall from grace as trust in Ma was 57.5 in June 2008, one month into his presidency, and 52.6 on his one year anniversary in May last year. The level of trust in former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was 32.2 when he left office.
Wu’s trust level stood at 47.7 points, an increase of 0.8 points over last month. That of the KMT was 42.4, up 0.2 points from last month.
Trust in Tsai fell 2.2 points to 51, still higher than Ma’s 45.2. The level of trust in the DPP also fell 0.7 points to 41.3, just 1.1 points behind the KMT.
The pollster attributed Tsai’s declines to her poor showing against Ma in the recent debate on the planned economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing and the apparent hesitation she showed before deciding to run for Sinbei City mayor.
The public mood index (TPMI) this month was 43.0 points, up 0.5 from last month.
The TPMI consists of two indexes: the political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI). The PCI was 47.2 this month, while the ECI was 38.8.
These figures represented increases of 0.6 and 0.5 points over the previous month.
On the political front, respondents’ confidence in the Ma administration was 45.1 points, up 0.8 point from the previous month.
The index for political optimism grew 0.5 point to 50.5. Political stability for next month grew 1.4 points to 41.8 and the level of trust in cross-strait detente next month fell 0.4 point to 59.1.
On the economic front, the current economic situation index was 31.8 points, an increase of 1.8 points from last month.
The economic optimism index decreased by 0.8 point to 45.9 points, the lowest this year.
The poll surveyed 1,010 adults around the nation between April 16 and May 13.
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