Approval ratings for three Cabinet officials in charge of economic affairs failed to reach double digits and more than 40 percent of respondents said they should be removed from office, a public opinion poll showed yesterday.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) received an approval rate of just 9 percent, but that was still higher than Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford’s (張盛和) 7.9 percent and Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Yiing Chii-ming’s (尹啟銘) 6 percent, according to a survey conducted by the Taiwan Indicators Research Survey.
The three officials’ disapproval ratings ranged between 29 percent and 37.7 percent, with respondents who said that they were unaware of anything the officials had done exceeding 44 percent for all three.
Among those who polled, 41.5 percent said the officials should be replaced, while 38.9 percent said they should keep their jobs.
Asked who deserved to be replaced the most, 34.4 percent of respondents chose Shih, with Yiin at 22.7 percent and Chang at 14.3 percent.
Eleven percent of respondents said all three should be removed.
On a scale of 1 to 100, respondents gave President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his administration a year-end score of 46.6 points.
A further breakdown saw Ma averaging 38.3 points among pan-green supporters, 42.9 points among independent voters and 58.6 points among pan-blue supporters.
The survey was conducted between Thursday and Friday and collected 1,017 valid samples with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
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