With less than 100 days to go until the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections, the recent announcement by the Global Views Survey Research Center that it would no longer be conducting surveys on political issues has caused much debate.
The center announced on Tuesday that it would no longer conduct polls on elections or political issues because of a shift in corporate policy and the center’s director, Tai Li-an (戴立安), also resigned.
The center was founded in 2006 and thereafter it began a series of surveys, ranging from economic to political. The center’s surveys also included public opinion on the implementation of the government’s policies, as well as opinion on the nation’s various political parties.
In an interview on Wednesday with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Tai said he was told on Tuesday that the center would be shifting roles and would no longer be conducting surveys on elections or political issues.
Tai said the announcement was rather abrupt and that it was the reason he had resigned.
Tai said he created the center in 2006 and that it was even acknowledged as a credible and neutral source in US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. He said the sudden announcement had caused him to feel nothing but regret.
In response to rumors that the announcement came after political pressure, Tai said he could not make a comment because of the uncertainty of the information, but he “believes that the upper echelons of the company have a more complete plan.”
Tai said he would officially leave his post at the end of this month after he finishes handing over his responsibilities to his successors, adding that he had made no plans with regard to what his next job would be.
According to data Tai has collected on the elections since Typhoon Morakot caused widespread flooding in 2009, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has a 4 to 6 percent lead over President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Analyzing the data with current conditions in mind, Tai said that there was still a 4 to 6 percent gap between the candidates.
In other words, both parties were trying to close a gap between 48 percent and 52 percent of votes, Tai said, adding that Tsai held the upper hand at the moment.
Because of the slim gap, Tai said he was worried that the cost of trying to change the outcome of the elections had decreased, adding that future elections would further challenge voters and the maturity of the campaigning parties.
Long years of tracking shows that the KMT’s support base is lower than 50 percent and with both parties almost neck-and-neck in the support ratings, it is shaping up to be a tough election for the party in power, Tai said.
Tai said surveys of neutral voters showed that they showed a higher degree of autonomy and their support for Tsai was on the high side, a situation that mirrored neutral voters’ support for Ma in the 2008 presidential election.
Because of the low satisfaction with Ma’s policy implementation that has been highlighted in the center’s surveys, some suspect that the “shifting role” of the center is the result of political pressure.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS