Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) enjoys the highest popularity among the nation’s top 12 political leaders, followed by Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), according to an opinion poll released on Sunday.
In the survey conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR), Chen took the top spot as in last year’s poll by scoring a rating of 76.5 percent, while Lai came in second with 67.9 percent.
Coming in third was president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) with 64.8 percent, followed by outgoing Premier Simon Chang (張善政) with 56.6 percent and Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) with 48.3 percent.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) received 47.7 percent, with Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) garnering 46.9 percent and premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) receiving 45.2 percent.
Those who received lower scores were New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) with 43.1 percent, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) with 40.5 percent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with 40.4 percent and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) with 32.3 percent.
TISR conducted a similar survey last year in which Chen also topped the list, while Lai placed third, Tsai took sixth and Lin was seventh.
The survey was conducted among Taiwanese aged 20 and above on Tuesday and Wednesday last week using computer-assisted telephone interviews and random-digit-dialing systems. A total of 1,010 valid surveys were collected. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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