The latest survey conducted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) showed that 42.37 percent of Greater Taichung residents would vote for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Greater Taichung mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) if they were to vote tomorrow, while the incumbent, Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), has 24.76 percent of support.
However, 32.88 percent of the respondents were undecided, the survey showed.
Lin’s lead has fallen by 5.66 percentage points from the newspaper’s previous poll in August. That survey showed a difference of 23.27 percentage points between Lin’s 46.15 percent of support and Hu’s 22.88 percent.
Lin is considered most likely to win by 39.92 percent of respondents in the latest poll, reflecting a drop of 2.14 percentage points since August.
Hu is expected to come out on top by 19.47 percent, similar to August’s 19.28 percent.
An analysis found that in the region that was Taichung City before its merger with Taichung County, 45.14 percent of residents support Lin and 27.3 percent Hu.
In the former Taichung County region, Lin has 41.01 percent of support to Hu’s 23.34 percent.
In terms of voter age, Lin has secured his lead in all age groups, according to the survey.
It found that among 30-to-39-year-olds, Lin holds particularly high support at 50.87 percent, while Hu has 18.26 percent.
Among 20-to-29-year-olds, 41.46 percent support Lin, while 19.51 percent back Hu, the poll showed.
More potential voters said they would vote on election day: 77.25 percent. While 5.11 percent said they do not plan to vote, 17.08 percent said they might.
When reached for comment, Lin said on Thursday night that the survey results are similar to those found by his own team, which show him maintaing a two-digit lead over the past six months. He believes the numbers show that Taichung residents are looking forward to a change for the city to make strides forward.
Greater Taichung Government Information Bureau director Shih Ching-wen (石靜文) said there are all kinds of polls before the vote and hoped that the polls would not become “tools for election strategies.”
She said she believes Hu would not respond to the paper’s survey, as he has repeatedly emphasized “the real poll is taking place on election day, Nov. 29.”
The survey was conducted by the Liberty Times polling center during the nights of Oct. 7, 8 and 9. A total of 1,077 valid responses were collected from likely voters over age 20.
The survey had a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points. The population sample was based on random sampling from Taichung residential numbers.
The survey was financed by the Liberty Times.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company