Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) US visit has apparently boosted her support rate as the latest opinion poll conducted by the party showed its presidential candidate is leading President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) by 1.5 percentage points, the DPP said yesterday.
The survey, conducted on Monday, showed that 44.3 percent of respondents support the pairing of Tsai with DPP Secretary--General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), while 42.8 percent support President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is seeking re-election, and his running mate Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
If People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) enters the race, Tsai would still lead Ma by 1.2 percentage points, with Soong receiving 12.4 percent support, the survey found.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The poll showed 45.3 percent of respondents agree that Tsai had a successful US visit, while 16.1 percent disagree.
The poll collected 858 samples and has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.
In another survey released yesterday by Global Views magazine, Ma held a small lead, receiving 39.2 percent compared with Tsai’s 38.3 percent, in a head-to-head battle.
However, Tsai edged Ma by 0.2 points — 36 percent to 35.8 percent — in a three way race, with Soong finishing last with 10 percent.
Meanwhile, DPP spokesman Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the party would decide by public opinion poll by Saturday on a legislative candidate for Greater Taichung’s seventh district to replace Chien Chao-tung (簡肇棟), who has withdrawn from the race after his involvement in a hit-and-run car accident that killed one person.
Lin said a survey will be conducted to determine the candidate between five hopefuls: Taichung City councilors Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) and Lee Tien-shen (李天生), and former DPP legislators Lin Feng-hsi (林豐喜), Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) and Hsieh Hsin-ni (謝欣霓).
Chien’s replacement will be decided in time for the DPP’s three-in-one campaign activity to be held on Saturday in Greater Taichung.
The event will include the DPP’s party congress, the celebration of its Sept. 28 party anniversary and a rally for January’s presidential and legislative elections.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
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