Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said he will reflect upon his performance as only 12 percent of Taipei residents said in the latest poll that they would support him if he ran for president.
The survey, released on Monday by the Chinese-language CommonWealth Magazine, asked people between age 20 and 35 in the five special municipalities about their support of the five local government heads if they were presidential candidates.
Hau of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who will complete his final term next year, received 12 percent support from Taipei residents. Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) enjoyed 55.4 percent support in Greater Tainan. Lai was ranked No. 1 in both Taipei and Greater Taichung, with support rates of 24.6 percent and 21.2 percent respectively. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) obtained 43.51 percent support in Greater Kaohsiung.
In the pan-blue camp, support for Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the KMT in his hometown is poor, with only 19.79 percent of people supporting him for the presidency, according to the survey.
Support for a presidential bid by New Taipei City (新北市) Mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) is much higher than the other two government heads in the pan-blue camp, with 22.6 percent of New Taipei City residents saying they would support him if he chose to run.
Hau said he will continue to examine his own performance in city governance, and will take the poll result as a reference while declining to comment on his lower support than Chu.
“My priority is to carry out city projects and make the city better for Taipei residents,” he said.
Chu said he will make greater efforts to seek breakthroughs in municipal construction.
“All of different surveys are references, and I will keep the hard work with my team,” he said.
The survey, conducted between July 8 and Aug. 13 with 95 percent statistical confidence, also looked at the approval ratings of 22 municipality heads. The magazine invited the academic to assess the local heads’ performances and mixed the poll and expert assessments with scores.
Lai topped the list with an average score of 82, followed by Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) and Chen.
Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮), who has suffered low approval ratings in various surveys, was at the bottom of the survey with a score of 30.
Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿) and Hau were also at the bottom three in the survey.
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