Former premier William Lai (賴清德) has attracted more grassroots support than President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as the two compete to seek the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) nomination for next year’s presidential election, a Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation poll said yesterday.
Lai and Tsai last week separately registered for the party’s presidential primary. Until Lai’s announcement on Monday last week, which caught many party members off guard, only Tsai had announced her bid for the party’s nomination.
The survey showed that 59.8 percent of respondents supported Lai’s candidacy, while 28.9 percent did not.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Asked which of the two they support, 55.1 percent chose Lai, 26 percent backed Tsai, while 18.9 percent said they did not know or have not yet decided, the poll showed.
Another 65.9 percent said that Tsai might not be re-elected.
The survey also showed that 52.8 percent did not support Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent, joining the race, and 60 percent did not want Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) running either.
Ko and Han have not said they plan to join the presidential race, but their supporters have been encouraging them to do so.
Asked to choose between Lai, Ko and Han, 36.5 percent favored Lai, while 29.9 percent supported Han and 26 percent Ko, the poll showed.
Lai should also be able to beat former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who has declared his intention to vie for the KMT’s nomination, the survey showed.
While 48.1 percent are satisfied with Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) performance, only 32.4 percent found Tsai’s performance satisfactory, the poll showed.
Lai’s performance as premier appeared the best among the three premiers under Tsai’s administration so far, former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said, adding that the DPP might lose next year’s election if it does not pick a candidate voters like.
Meanwhile, the DPP’s approval rating surpassed the KMT’s after lagging behind for four months, which could be attributed to Lai’s election bid, foundation chairman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said, adding that morevoters could embrace the ruling party again due to Lai’s role.
The poll was conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week and collected 1,073 valid samples.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai