Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential hopeful Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) approval rating was leading that of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) by 3.56 percentage points, according to a poll released by the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) on Friday.
The BCC-commissioned poll came after Tsai and Su faced off in televised policy sessions that are seen as a major indicator of whether they can sway voters before official nomination polls are held starting on April 25.
The poll was conducted on Tuesday and Thursday, while the second policy session was held on Wednesday.
The poll showed that Su scored an approval rating of 31.94 percent against Tsai’s 28.38 percent. The third contender, former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良), received 6 percent.
PULLING ADEAD
The survey suggested that Su has benefited somewhat from his performance in the sessions, with support climbing about 7 percentage points against Tsai since the last BCC survey on April 4, when he was down by 3.5 percentage points.
A further breakdown of the latest poll suggested Su received an approval rating of 28.66 percent in the north of the country, while Tsai garnered 27.63 percent. In central Taiwan it was 31 percent for Su against Tsai’s 27.7 percent and in the south it showed 37.61 percent for Su against Tsai’s 30.11 percent.
The poll questioned 1,120 people, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percentage points.
Asked about the increase after the third policy session yesterday afternoon, Su said he took every poll “very importantly and seriously.”
IMPROVEMENT
“I still have many areas I need to improve on. The most important thing is winning Taiwanese support and winning the 2012 presidential elections,” Su said.
However, Tsai sought to downplay the implications of the poll, saying that they rise and fall depending on who conducts the survey.
“It’s just used as a reference,” she said. “We have seen polls fluctuate from time to time.”
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS