More than 60 percent of respondents polled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) this week were dissatisfied with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance and nearly 80 percent thought the Cabinet should be reshuffled.
The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday and received 868 valid samples. It showed that 62.1 percent expressed dissatisfaction over Ma’s performance, while 31.5 percent said they were satisfied.
It was the first time the president’s disapproval rating has exceeded 60 percent since the DPP began conducting such surveys in April.
The poll released yesterday showed that 49.4 percent of respondents were in favor of a “partial Cabinet reshuffle” and 30 percent backed a “major reshuffle.”
Only 9.3 percent of respondents thought no reshuffle was required.
Just over 28 percent of respondents felt Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) needed to be urgently replaced, along with Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), named by 8.2 percent of those polled; and Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德), mentioned by 8.1 percent.
DPP Department of Culture and Information Director Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) told a press conference that 67 percent of respondents also expressed support for a tax refund proposal to stimulate domestic consumption.
Almost half of those polled (49.7 percent) said Ma should be held responsible for failing to realize his “6-3-3” campaign pledge, in which he promised to achieve an annual economic growth of 6 percent, an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent, and per capita GDP of US$30,000 by 2016.
While 51.8 percent of respondents said they could not accept Ma’s comment that the cross-strait relationship is not a state-to-state in nature, 34.2 percent said it was acceptable.
Meanwhile, 51.3 percent of respondents disagreed with Ma’s proposed diplomatic truce, while 36.2 percent supported the idea.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.
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