Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that opinion polls are for reference only and that he will continue to propose better policies to gain public recognition.
“Polls only serve as reference. I think what really matters is that we endeavor to bring up well-devised policies to garner voters’ support during the campaign,” Chu said.
Chu also downplayed concerns that his campaign has been marred by the snowballing real-estate controversy surrounding his running mate, former Council of Labor Affairs minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄).
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
“We will make an effort to let the public see the difference between us and our Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] challengers in the remaining 51 days before the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections,” Chu said.
Wang has been accused of engaging in speculation of military housing units, residing illegally in a government dormitory with her husband and coercing a landowner in Miaoli County’s Nanjhuang Township (南庄) to buy back land she had purchased at triple the original price.
Chu made the remarks prior to an interview with Taiwan Television Station (TTV) yesterday morning, in response to media inquiries regarding the discrepancy between the results of the KMT’s latest internal survey and those in a poll carried out by Chinese-language newspaper the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
The KMT’s poll released late on Wednesday showed that while DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) continued to lead with an approval rating of 39.7 percent, she was only 10.5 percent ahead of Chu, who garnered 29.2 percent approval.
However, 28.3 percent of the respondents believed Chu was better equipped to boost Taiwan’s economic development, followed by Tsai at 17.3 percent and People First Party (PFP) presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) at 9.9 percent, the poll showed.
In terms of maintaining the scope of the development of cross-strait ties, 27.3 percent of those polled by the KMT said Chu was a better candidate for the job, while 20 percent preferred Tsai and 14.3 percent supported Soong.
Despite public criticism of the KMT’s list of legislator-at-large candidates, the survey showed that the KMT received 26. 1 percent of support, just 0.2 percentage points behind the DPP at 26.3 percent.
“The results indicate that many of the professionals on the KMT’s legislator-at-large list, such as Tamkang University dean of student affairs Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), Kaohsiung Medical University vice president Chen Yi-Ming (陳宜民), Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) and Immigrant Development and Exchange Association director-general Lin Li-chan (林麗蟬), have helped boost the party’s campaign,” KMT headquarters said in a press release on Wednesday.
The percentage of votes a party receives in the January elections will determine the number of at-large seats it wins.
The Liberty Times survey released yesterday showed Tsai could win by a landslide over Chu, leading by 47.8 percent to 13.8 percent. Soong received only 6.8 percent.
Compared with a similar poll conducted by the newspaper last month, Tsai’s support rating has climbed slightly, from 47 percent, while that of Chu has dropped from 19.9 percent.
Poll results indicate that Tsai is more popular among younger voters, garnering support from 49.4 percent and 47.8 percent of respondents aged from 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 respectively, against Chu’s 11.8 percent and 11.1 percent respectively.
In addition, 37.5 percent of the respondents said they would cast their party ballot for the DPP in the Jan. 16 elections, followed by the KMT at 16.8 percent and the PFP at 3.7 percent.
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