Former premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that the media had misinterpreted his stance on cellphone interviews for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential primary, as he would support the method if it were proven fair and accurate.
Lai and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are seeking the party’s nomination as its candidate for next year’s presidential election.
The party headquarters in March published its regulations for the primary, which state that only landlines would be used for telephone polling.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
Tsai last week suggested including cellphone surveys, as the cellphone penetration rate in Taiwan is greater than that for landlines.
Lai at the time was reported as saying that he was opposed to the method because it is susceptible to fraud and statistical manipulation.
However, he said yesterday that he is not against cellphone polling.
“The media said I am opposed to cellphone polls, but that is a misinterpretation. There is nothing inherently wrong with cellphone polls. My issue is that the method has to be scientifically proven,” he said.
Conducting a credible poll requires a tested statistical model, sampling methodology and question design, which are lacking for cellphone surveys, he said.
Additionally, cellphone numbers have no area codes and they could be owned by foreigners, making it more difficult to incorporate results, he said.
“As a licensed doctor, I know that pharmaceuticals are vigorously tested in clinical trials before they can become prescription medicines,” Lai said. “I would welcome the use of cellphone polls, but before they are adopted, the party has to test them for a year or two.”
Lai yesterday started a hashtag campaign for his presidential nomination bid.
Accompanied by entertainer Kuo Tzu-chien (郭子乾), who impersonated Lai playing a character named Lai Ching-te (賴青德), the former premier announced that from yesterday, his campaign would have a van touring the nation to talk to voters about his platform.
Members of the public who take a selfie with the van and hashtag the phrase “support only William Lai” (“唯一支持賴清德”) would be treated to a cup of coffee, he said, adding that if time provides, he would accompany the van to chat with people over coffee.
The van departed from William Lai’s home district of Wanli (萬里) in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching