Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was trailing his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) counterpart by 18 percentage points, the latest survey conducted by the Chinese-language China Times regarding support for presidential candidates published yesterday showed.
The results showed that 38.9 percent of respondents said they would vote for DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), 21.8 percent for Chu and 8.8 percent for People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
If a “pan-blue integration” were to occur, meaning that Soong withdraws from the race, both Tsai and Chu’s support would increase, with respondents supporting Tsai rising to 45.7 percent and Chu to 27 percent.
Photo: Chen Wei-tsung, Taipei Times
“It shows that Tsai is almost guaranteed to win the presidential election,” the newspaper said.
The poll also found that 47 percent of voters have concerns over the possibility of the DPP winning both the presidency and a legislative majority, while 23.9 percent were in favor of the DPP having a complete victory.
In response to the results of the survey, Chu said that the numbers were due to him having only just begun his campaign.
“A significant amount of pan-blue supporters still cannot forgive us, as they are harboring grudges. We have to continue to work hard to gain their support,” he said.
“The DPP started to act after I stepped into the ring, resorting to tricks such as lawsuits, mudslinging and legislative boycotts to avoid a fair competition,” added Chu, who was in New Taipei City stumping for a KMT legislative candidate.
“Those are tricks from 20 to 30 years ago, and the DPP is still using them. It shows a lack of confidence in a party that wants to govern the nation. As I see it, the DPP would be best left as a perpetual opposition party,” Chu said.
The China Times survey was completed on Thursday through the collection of 716 valid questionnaires, with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai