Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) has topped a list of the most satisfactory leaders of the nation’s six special municipalities, while Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) came in last, but the physician-turned-politician’s approval rating still surpasses that of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank showed.
The think tank commissioned Trend Survey and Research Co to conduct the survey to mark the second anniversary of the mayors’ inauguration on Dec. 25, 2014. The polling was conducted from Tuesday to Saturday last week.
It sought to gauge public perceptions of the mayors among the residents of the special municipalities they administer as well as several high-profile politicians from the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Chen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came in first among the mayors with an approval rating of 71.3 percent, followed by Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德, DPP) with 67.8 percent.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the DPP earned a 59.9 percent approval rating, while his DPP colleague Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) scored 52.5 percent.
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, scored 51 percent and the independent Ko 39.3 percent.
While respondents’ support for a local government head closely correlated with their own political affiliation and the color of the leader’s party, the support Cheng receives from Taoyuan residents seems to transcend political boundaries.
Whether they identified themselves as pan-green or pan-blue, the majority of Taoyuan respondents found Cheng’s performance satisfactory, the survey found.
A cross-analysis of the results also suggests that Ko appears to be most popular among respondents aged between 20 and 29, holders of a bachelor’s or higher degree, and New Power Party supporters.
Asked whether they felt their cities have progressed or retrogressed in the past two years, Taoyuan residents had the greatest tendency to say progressed, at 61.7 percent.
Trailing behind were Kaohsiung (61.2 percent), Taichung (56.7 percent), Tainan (55.9 percent), New Taipei City (49.8 percent) and Taipei (35.6 percent), the poll found.
While Lin did not make the top three, 21.3 percent, of the respondents — regardless of where they live — found Taichung to be the most livable city among the six municipalities, followed by Taipei at 15.3 percent and Kaohsiung at 15.1 percent.
The survey also asked respondents to choose one or more politicians they liked from a list of 12, with the top three being Chen (55.1 percent), Lai (50 percent) and Lin (42.6 percent).
Ko came in fourth at 41.9 percent, while Tsai was only picked by 40.4 percent of those polled.
Respondents’ three least favorite politicians are KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) at 21.6 percent, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) at 21.5 percent and former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) of the KMT at 16.5 percent.
Huang Chung-che (黃崇哲), an assistant professor in National Taipei University’s economics department said the reason the public is more likely to have a positive view of local leaders is because their campaign promises are easier to deliver on, and the outcomes are more tangible.
“Improvements made to rivers, roads and traffic lights are easier to notice, but it requires more time and work [for the central government] to assuage people’s grievance against high housing prices, which would need a dramatic increase in nationwide salary levels and measures aimed at curbing property prices,” Huang said.
The survey collected a total of 4,739 valid samples, with between 759 and 805 samples being collected from each of the six municipalities. It has a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.
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