President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) are locked in a tight presidential election race, with the latest media poll putting the lead Ma holds over Tsai within the poll’s margin of error.
A poll result released by the -Chinese language China Times yesterday showed that if only two pairs of presidential candidates were fielded, Ma and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket against Tsai and DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) on the DPP ticket, the support rate for the Ma-Wu ticket would be 44.3 percent, while it would be 41 percent for the Tsai-Su ticket.
Although the poll gave Ma a lead of 3.3 points over Tsai, it was the closest gap between the two candidates in the presidential surveys that the China Times has conducted in recent months.
Photo: Taipei Times
If People First Party (PFP) presidential hopeful James Soong (宋楚瑜) were to participate in the January presidential election along with his running mate, academic Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄), the Ma-Wu ticket would garner 41.7 percent support, while the Tsai-Su ticket would gain 38.2 percent and the Soong-Lin ticket would receive 10.4 percent, the poll showed.
The poll questioned 1,074 people and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
On Monday, xfuture.org, a Web site with a platform similar to the stock market that allows users to predict the results of future events, said Tsai held a slight lead over Ma in terms of her percentage of votes and her possibility of getting elected.
As of Saturday, the exchange predicted that Tsai would receive 49.5 percent of votes, Ma would get 48.3 percent and Soong would take 7.5 percent. Tsai has held the lead in the past nine days, and in the past three days her margin has exceeded 1 percentage point.
On the possibility of being elected, on Saturday the exchange gave Tsai 44.8 percent, Ma 41.5 percent and Soong 13.5 percent.
It said Ma’s chances of winning the election rose steadily from early September, peaking on Oct. 16 when he was 18.7 percentage points ahead of Tsai. However, that lead narrowed after Ma floated the possibility of signing a peace pact with China within the next 10 years.
According to National Chengchi University’s Prediction Markets Center, prediction markets efficiently collect effective information through a futures or stock-trading mechanism that relies on the wisdom of the public, who buy and sell contracts of future events on the market.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
RSS