Public confidence in Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her party reached new highs this month while President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trust level continued to drop, the latest poll released by the Chinese-language Global Views Monthly magazine showed.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put Tsai’s confidence index at 52.3 points on a scale of 0 to 100. The figure represented an increase of 1.1 points from last month and was the highest since May.
Ma’s confidence index, meanwhile, dropped 0.3 points from last month to 47.2 this month. It reached 50.1 in October, the highest since August last year. Meanwhile, the trust level for Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) rose 0.4 points to 45.9.
Overall, public confidence in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was 45.5 this month, up 1.8 points.
Confidence in the DPP increased 2.3 points to 44, an all-time high since the center began the survey in July 2006.
Center director Lian Tai (戴立安) attributed the growing confidence in Tsai and her party to a positive public impression of the DPP, which won Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung in last month’s five special municipality elections. The party also won the popular vote by 5 percentage points, or about 400,000 votes, despite only winning two of the five mayoral seats up for grabs.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Public Mood Index (TPMI) this month edged up 3.2 points to 46.4. Although it remained below 50, it was the highest since the survey was launched in July 2006.
TPMI consists of two indexes: the political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI).
The PCI was 50.9 this month — up 3.4 points. It was the first time the figure has been above the 50-mark since September last year. The ECI this month was 41.9 — the second highest since the survey was established. The ECI reached the highest in October, with 42.5 points.
Tai said although the figures reflected growing confidence in the economy, public confidence in Ma had yet to recover, he said.
On the political front, the poll showed the index for political optimism increased 7.4 points to 57.9. The political stability index for next month was 53.4 — an increase of 9.2 points — and the level of trust in cross-strait detente for next month grew 5.7 points to 62.4.
On the economic front, the current economic situation index was 34.6 points, a rise of 2.1 points from last month. The economic optimism index advanced 3.9 to 49.2 points.
The poll surveyed 1,008 adults nationwide from Dec. 13 to Dec. 15, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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