President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would beat Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) by a small margin in next year’s presidential election if they are the only candidates, a poll released by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation showed yesterday.
In a two-way presidential race between Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Han — both of whom won their party primaries — 45 percent of voters would cast their ballot for Tsai, while 40.1 percent would back Han, the poll showed.
Yet, if Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) joined the race, the margin between Tsai and Han would be reduced to within the margin of error, it showed.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
In a three-way race between Tsai, Han and Ko, 33.5 percent of respondents said they would vote for Han, while 32.6 percent would back Tsai and 25.5 percent would support Ko, the poll showed.
In a four-way presidential race between Tsai, Han, Ko and Gou, 29.7 percent of voters would choose Tsai, 29.3 percent would back Han, 18.3 percent would support Ko and 15.9 percent would prefer Gou, it showed.
Compared with poll results released by the foundation last month, Tsai’s lead over Han has decreased.
Tsai led Han by more than five percentage points in both a two-way and three-way race, the previous poll showed.
Tsai’s job approval rate declined by nearly five percentage points from 47.7 percent last month to 42.8 percent, the poll showed.
Approval for Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) dropped from 52.4 percent last month to 48 percent, it showed.
Forty percent of respondents identified themselves as supporters of the DPP, while 38.8 percent said they supported the KMT and 17.5 percent said they are independent voters, the foundation said.
Tsai’s lead over Han in a two-way race is a not strong, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said, adding that if Ko joins the election, the margin between them makes it unclear who would win.
The election would be further complicated if Gou runs as an independent, You said.
While poll results suggest that Gou would have the lowest support rate of the four, he could draw votes from Han and Ko, giving Tsai an advantage, he said.
Whether Ko and Gou would join the race is an important factor, he said.
The poll, conducted from Monday to Tuesday last week, gathered 1,089 valid samples and has a margin of error of 2.97 percentage points.
Separately yesterday, Ko said a new poll showing that his approval rate is better than Tsai’s was intended to lure him into the race.
The poll by Want Want China Times Media Group showed that if Ko runs for president against Tsai and Han, his approval would be second behind Han.
“The China Times is trying to lure me into running for president,” Ko told reporters.
Asked to comment on former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) remark that the KMT would be doomed in the election if Gou runs as an independent, Ko said it would be okay if the KMT were doomed, but Taiwan cannot be doomed.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
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
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
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
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS