The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Greater Taichung mayoral candidate, Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), is leading Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) with a support rate of 45.8 percent against the latter’s 30.8 percent, according to a poll conducted by the Central Taiwan Society.
The poll, released by the pro-localization civic group on Friday, showed 36.7 percent of city residents did not support Hu due to his long time in office — 12 years as of this year — while 37.3 percent were dissatisfied with his governance.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Hu was elected as Greater Taichung mayor in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.
He won the election as the first-term municipal mayor after the merger of Taichung City and Taichung County in 2010.
Last week, Hu announced his bid to be the party’s candidate in the year-end mayoral election.
In the poll, 55 percent of respondents said they supported a change of mayor, while 34 percent of the respondents who claimed they were pan-blue supporters also said they supported letting someone else try their hand at governing the city.
The poll found that 44.2 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with Hu’s governance, while 42 percent were satisfied.
Meanwhile, 55.8 percent of residents polled expressed confidence in Lin, with more than 40 percent expressing support for Lin.
In terms of city construction and the administration’s performance, the top three complaints were transportation and road construction, public safety and public policy, the poll showed, with 56 percent of Greater Taichung residents calling for a metro railsystem instead of a Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system.
Seventy percent of residents complained about the city-county merger into a municipality in 2010, saying it was detrimental to development.
Additional reporting by Chang Ching-ya
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