A majority of Taiwanese worry that more shootings could occur in future elections following an election-eve incident involving former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) son Sean Lien (連勝文), a poll by Taiwan Thinktank showed yesterday.
A little more than 62 percent of respondents said they were worried there could be more violence in major elections as part of efforts to influence results, while 36.6 percent said this was unlikely.
Nearly 70 percent said they agreed that the shooting incident, in which Sean Lien was shot in the face, reflected a breakdown in public order, against 28.7 percent who disagreed.
Asked which party benefited from the shooting on Friday night, 66.5 percent said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), 28.9 percent did not express any opinion and 4.7 percent said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
More than 53 percent said they agreed that the shooting turned the tide in the KMT’s favor, against 43.9 who disagreed.
However, a majority of respondents still considered the elections fair, with 52.3 percent saying they did not think the incident affected the fairness of the polls against 47.7 percent who said it did.
Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Soochow University, said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should do everything in his power to ensure that similar incidents did not happen again during his presidency, as they would undermine Taiwan’s democracy.
Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥), assistant professor of public administration and policy at National Taipei University, said election violence was more damaging to democracy than vote buying.
Chen called on the Executive Yuan to establish a truth commission to get to the bottom of the matter.
“The executive branch cannot remain silent because the last thing we want to do is to let those who act on emotional impulses decide the future,” he said.
Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌), executive director of Academia Sinica’s Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, said the government should address the problem of gangsters being involved in politics.
The poll also found that close to 73 percent of respondents thought the results of Saturday’s elections were a warning to Ma, who is expected to seek re-election in 2012.
Fifty-six percent said they were not satisfied with Ma’s performance since he took office in May 2008. A little more than 56 percent of respondents who said they did not have a political affiliation said they were unhappy with Ma’s performance.
In contrast, more than 67 percent said they were satisfied with the performance of DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) since she took the party’s helm in May 2008.
About 50 percent of those identifying themselves as pan-blue supporters said she did a good job and among non-commited respondents, nearly 61 percent said they were happy with Tsai’s performance.
While some of the DPP old guard have called for Tsai’s resignation in light of Saturday’s election results, more than 71 percent of respondents said she should continue to lead the party.
Nearly 60 percent of respondents identifying themselves as pan-blue supporters said they believed Tsai should remain in her position, while 64.7 percent of centrist voters said the same.
The poll of 1,085 adults on Monday and Tuesday had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
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