Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) local government heads and an independent top the list of best-performing local government heads, according to poll results released by a media outlet yesterday, while local government heads of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) were in the bottom three.
The Journalist magazine has collected more than 15,000 valid samples from people aged 20 or above from across the country from Aug. 16 to Sept. 21, asking respondents to evaluate the head of the county or city where they live, said Tai Li-an (戴立安), chief executive officer of Taiwan Indicators Survey Research, the firm that undertook the survey.
Tai added that the long period of the survey was designed to avoid one single news event impacting on the results.
Among the heads of 22 local governments, Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP tops the list with a general score of 74.6 out of 100 points, Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) of the DPP followed with 74.2 points, while independent Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁) came in third with 70 points.
Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), also a member of the DPP, came in the fourth with 67.7 points and Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) ranked fifth with 67.6 points, making him the only KMT local government head in the top five.
The bottom five heads of local governments on the list were all KMT members.
Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) was ranked last out of the 22 local government heads with 51.6 points, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was second to last with 51.9 points, Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) was third to the last with 55.7 points, while Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) ranked 19th with 58.1 points, and Lienchiang County Commissioner Yang Sui-sheng (楊綏生) was 18th with 59.7 points.
Notably, New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is considered a potential leader of the KMT ranked only 17th, with 59.9 points.
“I believe that most mayors and county commissioners work to accommodate the needs of residents in their cities or counties,” The Journalist editor-in-chief Ku Pi-ling (古碧玲) said.
“The results of this survey may help the politicians know whether what they are doing is really what the people want,” he said.
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