Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday continued to lead in the latest survey of presidential candidates by a media outlet, with People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) second.
The survey, conducted by the TVBS poll center, showed Tsai commanding 38 percent, while Soong had 20 percent and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) had 17 percent.
Compared with TVBS’ July 19 poll, support for Tsai climbed by 4 percentage points, while Soong’s edged up 1 percentage point. Hung was the only candidate to see her support drop, falling sharply by 8 percentage points from 25 percent last month.
The precipitous fall in Hung’s numbers was reflected in every demographic group, regardless of age, geography or party affiliation, the poll showed.
By age group, among respondents over 40 years old, support for Hung fell 10 points. It plunged by an even heavier 14 points among voters over 60 years old, the survey showed.
In the Taipei-New Taipei City-Keelung area, Hung saw her support rating halved to 16 percent from last month’s 32 percent.
A cross-analysis by political affiliation showed that respondents affiliated with the DPP returned to support Tsai after Soong joined the race, boosting her rating by 6 points; among respondents affiliated with the KMT, support for Hung dropped to 54 percent from 62 percent.
The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday, with a sample size of 1,091 and a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The results of the TVBS poll reflected similar results as those conducted in the past month by other media outlets and organizations, such as the Cross-Strait Policy Association, Taiwan Indicators Survey Research, Taiwan Thinktank and the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) and the United Daily News: All showed Tsai taking the lead, followed by Soong and with Hung in third place.
The one exception was a poll commissioned by the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum, a think tank led by academics known for their pro-unification stance, which showed Tsai leading with 36 percent, but with Hung ahead of Soong at 26.9 percent and 15.5 percent respectively.
Additional reporting by CNA
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