Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) won the highest approval rating among the leaders of the nation’s six special municipalities, a survey released yesterday by the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank showed.
The poll showed Chen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leading the pack with an approval rating of 75.4 percent, followed closely behind by Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), also of the DPP, with 74.1 percent.
Two other DPP leaders ranked third and fourth: Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) with 72.4 percent and Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) with 55.6 percent.
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ranked fifth with 53.4 percent, while independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) came in last, with 44.6 percent.
Compared with a similar poll published in November last year, Cheng showed the biggest improvement, with his approval rating rising 14.4 percentage points from 59.9 percent.
The other five posted increases of between 2 and 5 percentage points compared with the November poll.
In a comparison of pan-green and pan-blue politicians where respondents were asked to rate their general impressions of the leaders’ personal characteristics and how “likable” they are, Chen also garnered the highest rating with 58.1 percent, followed by Lai with 56.3 percent.
Lin received 50.5 percent, Ko got 50.1 percent and New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) ranked fifth with 44.7 percent.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received 41.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Chu received 41.8 percent, while former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who on Saturday won the KMT chairperson election, got 18.8 percent. KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) received 22 percent.
The think tank commissioned Trend Survey and Research Co to conduct the survey to gauge public perception of the nation’s leaders.
Conducted from May 6 to May 11, the poll collected 4,892 valid samples from Taiwanese aged 20 or older, and had a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points.
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