Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) would beat opponent Sean Lien (連勝文) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KTM) by a margin of 13 percentage points if next month’s Taipei mayoral election were held now, according to a survey released yesterday.
The opinion poll conducted by the Chinese-language United Daily News showed that 42 percent of the Taipei voters surveyed favor Ko, while 29 percent support Lien and 26 percent of remain undecided or would not reveal their preference, with the remaining 3 percent backing one of the other five candidates registered in the race.
Of the people interviewed for the survey conducted in the middle of the month, 40 percent said they believe Ko would win the election on Nov. 29, while 31 percent expect Lien to be elected and 28 percent said they did not know.
Although he is running as an independent, Ko has long been seen as a member of the pan-green camp led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has endorsed the 55-year-old’s campaign instead of fielding its own candidate.
That perception was reflected in the poll numbers, which showed that Ko had the backing of 85 percent of the respondents who said they leaned politically toward the DPP and its smaller allies.
The National Taiwan University Hospital surgeon also had a 31 percentage-point edge (45 percent to 14 percent) over the 44-year-old Lien among independent voters, who could prove decisive in the contest in Taipei, a traditional KMT stronghold.
Among the respondents who said they favor the politics of the KMT and minor like-minded parties, 69 percent support Lien.
More than 1,000 voters registered in Taipei were interviewed for the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus-3 percent.
Both candidates are running for public office for the first time as they bid to succeed Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who will step down in December after serving two four-year terms.
The KMT has held the city since 1998.
Of the five other candidates in the mayoral race, none is expected to win more than 2 percent of the vote, the poll found.
In the last Taipei mayoral election in 2010, Hau secured a second term by defeating DPP candidate and former chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) by a 12 percentage-point margin.
However, the United Daily News said that the KMT’s candidate faces an uphill struggle this time because of Lien’s image as someone owing his successes to his wealthy background and also because of general discontent over the KMT government’s performance on such national issues as food safety and education.
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