Polls yesterday disagreed whether President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) or former premier William Lai (賴清德) would be the leading presidential hopeful for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in a three-way presidential election against the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) likely candidates and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
The Cross-Strait Policy Association described Tsai as gaining on Lai in the three-way race for the first time in its polls.
Should Tsai run against the KMT’s Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and Ko, an independent, Han, Tsai and Ko would respectively claim 32.6 percent, 27.9 percent and 26 percent of the vote, it said.
Photo: CNA
If Lai ran, he would win 26.8 percent of the vote, trailing Han and Ko by 4.8 percent and 1.8 percent respectively, or underperforming Tsai by 0.1 percent, it said.
In a race against Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Ko, Tsai would win 28 percent of the vote against Gou’s 30.2 percent and Ko’s 28 percent, or a slight improvement over Lai’s 27.3 percent, it said.
Tsai’s performance in the three-way races has improved over the past two polls, where Lai led her by one or two points, depending on the scenario, it said.
The poll, which had a margin of error of 2.95 percentage points and 1,101 valid samples, was conducted by telephone on Monday and Tuesday last week, the association said.
However, a separate poll released by the New Constitution Foundation showed that Lai would outperform Tsai against Ko and either Han or Guo.
In a three-way race against Ko and Han, Lai would claim 30.5 of the vote, outperforming Tsai’s 28 percent, whereas in a race with Ko and Gou, Lai would win 30.9 percent of the vote, more than Tsai’s 26.7 percent, it said.
Within the DPP, Lai and Tsai had approval ratings of 47.3 percent and 32 percent respectively, largely unchanged from the foundation’s previous poll, it said, adding that 42.7 percent of respondents expressed unhappiness with the DPP’s decision to delay its presidential primary.
Within the KMT, Han has the highest approval rating at 35.1 percent, ahead of KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) 19.9 percent, Guo’s 17.3 percent and former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) 14 percent, it said.
The poll, conducted on Thursday and Friday last week, had a margin of error of 3 percentage points and collected 1,069 valid samples.
In related news, a group of pro-localization organizations yesterday held a news conference in support of Lai.
Medical practitioner Chen Yung-hsin (陳永興) said Lai has been running a clean campaign, while the DPP leadership has repeatedly changed the rules of the primary and its schedule to “rig the game in favor of the incumbent.”
A petition to establish an “association of friends of William Lai” had gathered 1,101 signatures since Tuesday, including 288 doctors, with 2,000 signatures being the goal, he added.
Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS