Two opinion polls released yesterday put Premier Yu Shyi-kun's popularity at a record high of 55 percent and 56 percent, respectively, 100 days after he took office in February.
One survey was conducted by the Institute for Public Opinion of the Shih Hsin University (世新大學) and the other was conducted by the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
The Shih Hsin University poll was conducted between May 8 and May 11 and questioned 1,077 adults. It found that Yu's approval rating is 55 percent, with 16 percent of the people polled saying they were dissatisfied with his performance over the past three months.
The Cabinet poll found Yu's approval rating to be 56 percent.
The surveys are just two of many polls that are expected to be released in the next few days to coincide with the second anniversary of President Chen Shui-bian's (
The survey also found that Yu outshined his predecessor, Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), whose approval rating in December last year was about 42 percent before plummeting to 31 percent in March last year after the controversy over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Yu also outshined Chen, whose approval rating was about 48 percent; and Vice President Annette Lu (
On a scale from 0 to 100, Yu received a score of 67.23, about 1.5 points more than the 65.72 points scored by Chen and the 60.89 points scored by Lu.
The Cabinet poll was conducted between May 13 and May 15 and showed that 56 percent of the 1,052 respondents polled said that they were satisfied with Yu's performance over the past three months, while 13 percent said they were dissatisfied.
The survey also found that 57 percent of the respondents felt satisfied with Chen's performance, while 24 percent were not.
The issues for which the government received the most positive performance ratings are environmental protection (about 70 percent), the safeguarding of national security (about 65 percent), and the protection of basic human rights (about 64 percent).
Economic development, educational reform and public security trailed the list.
Analyzing Yu's high approval rating, Emile Sheng (
"He appears to be a hard-working, polite and low-key person. Those are the qualities that most politicians rarely possess," he said.
Feng Chuang (莊岳峰), a public-communications lecturer at the Kun Shan University of Technology (崑山科技大學), proposed that Yu should take advantage of his high approval rating by teaming up with Chen to run in the 2004 presidential election.
"They should make a dynamic team because Yu has the qualities that Chen lacks and vice versa," Chuang said.
But Wu Tung-yeh (吳東野), chairman of the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University (政治大學), disagreed with Chuang's proposal. "Although Yu is the first DPP premier to receive a top-of-the-class approval rating since the peaceful transfer of power, an approval rating of 55 is still a failing score," he said.
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