About three out of four — 74.7 percent — respondents in a public opinion poll released yesterday said they were not satisfied with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance, a record high disapproval rating for Ma since he took office in May 2008, Taiwan Indicator Survey Research said yesterday.
Ma’s approval rating remained at 12.3 percent, the poll found.
The survey also covered several public policies or issues that have become controversial, including the new freeway electronic toll collection system.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said the government had committed a “serious mistake” in its policymaking.
Among those respondents, 42.5 percent supported termination of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ contract with Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co because of the problems with the eTag, with 26.1 percent supporting a one-month period to allow the system to be fine-tuned and 19.9 percent backing harsh penalties against company.
The poll found that the majority — 71.2 percent— of respondents supported the registration of actual housing prices, but opinions varied on who should be held accountable for providing the information to the government — the buyers, sellers or land administration agents.
When asked who should be responsible for providing information about property sales, 47.5 percent of respondents said both sellers and buyers should be responsible, 21.1 percent said land administration agents, 8 percent said buyers and 6.8 percent said sellers.
Almost half of the respondents (49.2 percent) agreed with the Legislative Yuan’s amendment of the Land Administration Agent Act (地政士法), saying that agents should be given time to correct unintentional mistakes.
Of those respondents, 36.2 percent supported an immediate reprimand for the agents and 14.7 percent said they had no opinion.
The poll was conducted between Wednesday and Thursday last week.
It collected 1,002 valid samples and had a margin of errors of 3.1 percentage points.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS