A survey released by Next TV on Tuesday showed that independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) enjoys a support rate of 40.2 percent, which puts him well in the lead ahead of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Sean Lien (連勝文), who is on 28.8 percent.
The poll also showed Ko leads in most Taipei districts except Daan (大安) and Wenshan (文山).
In the two districts that Lien has outperformed Ko, Lien had 32.9 percent in Daan as opposed to Ko’s 28 percent, and in Wenshan Lien led Ko by 34.5 percent to 28.4 percent, the survey showed.
According to Next TV’s poll, the districts that showed landslide support for Ko included Datong District (大同), with Ko’s 55.6 percent towering above Lien’s 18.2 percent; Beitou District (北投), where Ko has 50.5 percent of support and Lien 22.7 percent; and Lien’s campaign director and KMT Legislator Alex Tsai’s (蔡正元) electoral constituency Neihu District (內湖), where Ko has 59.5 percent support against Lien’s 19.6 percent.
The poll found 86.7 percent of self-proclaimed Democratic Progressive Party supporters are behind Ko and 2.4 percent support Lien. Of self-proclaimed KMT voters, 66.3 percent are for Lien and 17.7 percent for Ko, the poll showed.
In addition, the poll showed that 48.5 percent of People First Party supporters are for Lien and 34.1 percent for Ko; among the Taiwan Solidarity Union supporters 83.7 percent are for Ko and 6.1 percent for Lien; none of the New Party supporters polled support Ko, while 69.4 percent are for Lien.
Among those who said they were not affiliated with any political party, Ko led Lien by 33 percent to 15.6 percent, the poll showed.
The Next TV poll did not disclose how many survey samples were collected nor what the margin of error was.
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