Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has taken a small lead over President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the presidential election campaign, a poll released by Taiwan Thinktank yesterday showed.
According to the poll, Tsai had 35.9 percent support against Ma’s 35.4 percent, while support for People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) was at 10.8 percent, the poll showed.
Compared with a previous poll conducted by the group earlier this month, support for both Ma and Tsai dropped about 3 percent.
Photo: Su Fu-nan, Taipei Times
Former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮) said the result showed that recent incidents and disputes, from the price of persimmons to the first presidential debate last Saturday to controversy surrounding DPP vice presidential candidate Su Jia-chuan’s (蘇嘉全) wife, Hung Heng-chu (洪恆珠), for attending at a party 10 years ago that featured a male strip show, did not benefit any candidate.
Instead, the incidents added uncertainty to the election, Kuo said, as the percentage of undecided voters increased from 10 to 17.9 percent.
On growing youth unemployment, 76.9 percent of respondents said that it was a serious issue that needed to be addressed promptly, while 65.8 percent said forced unpaid leave among private businesses was also a serious matter.
“The poll showed that the unemployment rate among young people and unpaid leave are serious issues for voters regardless of party preferences, and presidential candidates should focus more on addressing the issues,” Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), a political scientist at Soochow University, said at a press conference held to release the poll results.
Liu Chin-hsin (劉進興), a retired professor at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said income and employment are two key economic elements, and the presidential candidates should address those issues because they concern the public the most.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS