President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) latest approval rate stood at 19.5 percent, with more than 60 percent of the public voicing displeasure at what they say is his inept performance and holding a negative view of his second term in office, according to the latest opinion poll released by Wealth Magazine yesterday.
The survey, conducted by the Trend Survey and Research Co, found that 68 percent of respondents said they were discontent with Ma’s performance in office over the past few months.
Among a number of policies by the Ma administration, 56 percent of respondents said they were most vexed by the government’s drastic increase in petroleum-based fuel and electricity prices, while 27 percent said the relaxation of a ban on imports of US beef containing residues of the animal feed additive ractopamine upset them most.
With opposition parties planning to stage a series of protests leading up to Ma’s May 20 inauguration, a total of 53 percent of respondents approved of such action, saying the public should take their disaffection to the streets. However, 21 percent doubted the protests would make an impact on the Ma administration. Less than 10 percent of respondents said they did not want to protest against Ma.
The survey collected 1,086 valid samples on May 2 and May 3 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS