Most people do not favor President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) running for re-election, with barely a third supporting her election for a second term, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) National Policy Foundation said yesterday.
A foundation survey conducted from May 7 to Tuesday showed that Tsai’s disapproval rating outweighed her approval rating at 56 percent to 38.3 percent.
Moreover, only 29.8 percent of respondents were supportive of her second-term bid, while 52.8 percent were opposed, the poll showed.
“Tsai’s presidency has been autocratic, arrogant and incompetent, and our presidential approval poll shows that her path to being re-elected would be a difficult one,” foundation chief executive officer Kao Yuang-kuang (高永光) said. “Tsai could well become the first single-term Taiwanese president since the presidency became a directly elected office in 1996.”
Tsai’s approval rating has been consistently lower than most of her predecessors, including Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who commanded an approval rating of about 40 percent in the early part of his second term, he said.
While former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), of the KMT, maintained an approval of 23 percent during his re-election, the public had been more supportive of his campaign than Tsai’s, showing a disconnect between public approval and voting behavior at the time, he said.
However, public disapproval of Tsai’s performance and opposition to her re-election are nearly identical in the poll, indicating a direct correlation, he said.
A public backlash against the Tsai administration’s “attack” on institutions and the unpopularity of her policies are the main reasons for her low approval rating, Kao said, citing pension reform and the Control Yuan’s censuring of prosecutors as examples.
Tsai could have asked the Council of Grand Justices to decide whether its legalization of same-sex marriage in 2017 should take precedence over the passage of a referendum in November last year, when a majority voted in favor of retaining the Civil Code’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman, he said.
Instead, Tsai forced the legalization of same-sex marriage through the legislature yesterday, he added.
“At the moment, the Democratic Progressive Party looks more like the undemocratically regressive party,” Kao said.
“A sign of Tsai’s weakness is former premier William Lai’s (賴清德) campaign for presidential nomination, which has survived despite Tsai’s best efforts to bury it,” Taipei City Councilor Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
RSS