The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday the party’s polls showed its candidates for the Taipei City and Sinbei City special municipality elections were slightly ahead of their Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterparts.
After the KMT government signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China last month, although the approval ratings for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the KMT’s candidates for the five special municipality elections did not change, the DPP’s Taipei candidate, Su Tseng-chang, (蘇貞昌) and the party’s Sinbei candidate, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), saw a slight increase in their support, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
“Ma and his KMT government use their executive power to promote the ECFA and to improve their approval ratings, but the polls show that it has been ineffective,” Lin said.
The electoral outlook for the DPP’s candidate for Greater Taichung, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), is also improving, Lin said, adding that the DPP’s poll suggests Su Jia-chyuan is only lagging behind his KMT counterpart, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), by 8 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the DPP’s candidates in Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung are maintaining a solid lead, Lin said.
On Thursday, the KMT published its poll, which showed that its candidates were leading in Taipei City, Sinbei City and Greater Taichung.
The KMT is simply “emboldening” itself by publicizing such a poll, Lin said.
As for the DPP’s polls, Lin said the party has a solid poll center, which conducts polls regularly that precisely reflect public opinion.
Director of the DPP poll center Chen Chun-lin (陳俊麟) asked if Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the KMT was as popular as the KMT poll suggested: “Why are KMT councilor candidates for Taipei City, Sinbei City and Greater Taichung all avoiding having their photo taken with Hau?”
At a separate setting yesterday, KMT spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) rebutted the DPP’s accusations and said the KMT had not published its poll results in an attempt to mislead the public as the DPP had.
“The KMT’s poll results were used as a reference point for the party, rather than a tool for the election campaign. The DPP should not point fingers at us when it is the one manipulating polls,” Su Jun-pin said.
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said yesterday the KMT never publishes poll results and he is always discussing the election outlook in response to the results of the DPP polls.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS