Nearly 60 percent of the public are dissatisfied with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, and President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) approval rating has fallen to the second-lowest point in her presidency, a monthly survey released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed.
About 59 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the performance of the DPP administration, which controls both the executive and legislative branches, while 35 percent said they approve.
Public dissatisfaction is evident even among DPP supporters, with 30 percent saying they are unhappy with the administration, compared with 74 percent among politically neutral respondents and 90 percent among Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Respondents who approve of Tsai’s handling of state affairs rose 1 percentage point from last month to 38.6 percent, while the number of those who disapprove increased 3.5 percentage points from last month to 46 percent.
Tsai’s approval rating has dropped by 31.3 percentage points since May last year, and her disapproval rating is the second-lowest of her presidency, foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said.
About 33 percent of respondents said they are satisfied with the performance of Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) Cabinet, up 1.2 percentage points from last month, and 53.9 percent said they are dissatisfied, up 4.5 percentage points from last month.
“The ability to win constituencies north of the Jhuoshuei River is the key to the DPP winning the general elections, but the party’s support has retreated back south of the river,” former DPP deputy secretary-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) said.
“The DPP’s disapproval rating has exceeded its approval rating in the party’s strongholds of Pingtung — Tsai’s hometown — and Kaohsiung, suggesting a major crisis for the DPP administration,” Lee said. “Tsai’s administration was expected to ease ethnic tensions, but it did not. The nation is still polarized along ethical and political lines.”
The DPP’s approval rating is low among those aged 35 to 64 — averaging about 31.66 percent — amid concern over the party’s move to tackle vested interests, Lee said, referring to the administration’s ongoing pension reform efforts.
To revive its flagging approval rating, the party has to make adjustments in terms of Cabinet appointments and policymaking, such as a swift overhaul of the controversial five-day workweek law, Lee said.
Meanwhile, 56 percent of respondents agree that the government should take a tougher stance against Beijing’s detention of Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) on unknown charges, while 26.4 percent disagree.
Respondents who agree that the government was forced to take a passive stance in the case because Beijing was “too barbaric” reached 43 percent, while 47.6 percent disagree.
About 52 percent said it would damage cross-strait relations should Lee’s detention continue, and 32.6 percent said it would not.
The poll also found that 44.4 percent of respondents have a positive view of government officials, while 47.1 percent have a negative view of them.
Judges are the most unfavorably perceived among public professions covered by the poll — including prosecutors, tax officials, military personnel, the police and intelligence agents — as 65.3 percent of respondents said they have a negative view of judges, and only 24.5 percent said they have a positive view.
Shih Hsin University journalism professor Peng Huai-en (彭懷恩) said that public distrust of judges lies in the way they are trained and recruited, as prospective judges are not required to have practical legal experience prior to their appointment, resulting in the so-called “dinosaur judges” who seem to be detached from society.
The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week, with 1,082 valid samples collected. It had a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS