Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is the most popular presidential candidate among voters aged 20 to 39, followed by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), a poll released yesterday by the Congress Party Alliance showed.
When asked who they would support as a presidential candidate, 28.1 percent of the respondents said Ko, 15.4 percent said Han of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and 13.2 percent said Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the poll found.
They were followed by Hon Hai Precision Industry chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) at 11 percent, former premier William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP at 5.9 percent, former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT at 2.4 percent and KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at 1.7 percent.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
When asked to choose between Tsai and Lai, who are vying for the DPP’s nomination, 36 percent said Lai, while 30 percent said Tsai.
When asked to choose between Han of the KMT and registered candidates competing in the party’s primary, 24.8 percent chose Han. He was followed by Gou at 19.9 percent, Wang at 14 percent and Chu at 12.3 percent.
The poll also found that half of young voters do not align themselves with a political party.
Among those who did, a majority backed the KMT at 17.4 percent, followed by the DPP at 16 percent and the New Power Party at 14.4 percent.
The poll found that 33.3 percent of respondents voted for Tsai in the 2016 presidential election, 30.2 percent did not or could not vote, 8.8 percent voted for Chu and 5.2 percent voted for People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
The survey of 1,072 people was conducted via cellphone interviews from April 26 to Sunday last week and was weighted to fit the population profile. It has a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
When asked whether his popularity among young people was due to his attendance at their events, Ko, an independent, said he has not especially endeavored to win young people’s support.
However, young people are the nation’s hope, Ko said, adding that he believes that they would do their best if they had hope and were given the opportunity.
“I am not a [typical] politician,” Ko said, adding that he differs from others because he began his political career at the age of 55, and having spent more than 30 years in another career, his behaviors and thoughts cannot be easily changed or distorted by politics.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
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
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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