Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has retained a more than 20-point lead over the presidential candidate fielded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), despite the party’s decision to replace Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), a Cross-Strait Policy Association poll released yesterday indicated.
Tsai was supported by 45.2 percent of those polled, giving her a 23.3-point lead over Chu who garnered 21.9 percent, with 13.8 percent of respondents backing People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜).
According to this and other association surveys, Tsai’s support is still about 40 percent, while Soong’s has dropped to a new low, giving the KMT’s presidential campaign a boost of 3.4 percentage points following its selection of Chu.
Photo: CNA
Among respondents who identify as pan-blue, 53.5 percent support Chu, showing a 7.8-percentage-point increase from an Oct. 7 poll conducted by the association.
Among pan-blue respondents, 23.6 percent said they would vote for Soong and 11.2 percent for Tsai, a 3-percentage-point and 1-percentage-point increase, respectively, from the previous survey.
In a head-to-head vote between Tsai and Chu, 54.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for Tsai while 27.2 percent for Chu.
Of those polled, 73.7 percent said Tsai had the best chance of becoming president. Only 8.7 percent thought Chu would win, while 2.1 percent said Soong would.
Regarding Chu’s decision to run for president even though he had promised to serve out his full term as New Taipei City mayor, 53.3 percent of respondents said they agreed he had betrayed his promise.
However, 41.1 percent said they agreed that Chu’s decision was made because he had no other choice in light of the party’s dismal election prospects.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS