Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) ranked last in an evaluation of the mayors of the six special municipalities, while Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) topped the list.
The online forecaster Exchange of Wisdom published its evaluation results on Wednesday, with Ko having the lowest “market price.”
Lai, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), topped the list with his “price” of 80.9, with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) of the DPP coming in second, followed by Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) and Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), both from the DPP, and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Ko, an independent, ranked last with his “price” at 34.6.
The exchange said that Lai last month made the news with issues such as the legislature’s review of an amendment to the Local Government Act (地方制度法); his dismissal of reports about a haunting around the Weiguan Jinlong complex, where 115 people died after the complex collapsed in an earthquake on Feb. 6; his efforts to promote the city’s tourism and his management of post-earthquake affairs.
The amendment, if passed, would require the elections of speakers and deputy speakers of city and county councils to be held with disclosed ballots, which is said to have been tabled in the wake of Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao’s (李全教) alleged vote-buying for the position in 2014.
Reports about Chen have been relatively positive as well, the exchange said. They include the incoming government’s alleged recruitment of officials from Chen’s administration; Buddhist Master Hsing Yun’s (星雲法師) statement that Chen has been doing well as a mayor; the appointment of women to leading positions in the city administration; her call for CPC Corp, Taiwan to relocate its headquarters to southern Taiwan and her meeting with local doctors calling for the establishment of a national dengue fever prevention center.
News about Cheng included this year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival and his call for ensuring the safety of the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT line, the exchange said.
In general, Cheng’s performance was positively reported in the past month, it added.
However, the other three mayors made the news with controversial remarks or had only a few of their positive performances reported by the media, the exchange said.
Support for Ko has been declining since his visit to the US early last month and has been affected by his calls for the cancellation of MRT fare discounts and compensatory days for working on typhoon days, and his proposal to use online voting to decide the fate of the Taipei Dome complex.
The exchange said that Ko’s previous remark encouraging schoolchildren to go to school by themselves, after the recent killing of a four-year-old girl, is also probably one of the reasons Ko’s support has fallen.
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