Former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) was the most qualified candidate for the Taipei mayoralty, while incumbent Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) is expected to face a tough battle if he decides to seek re-election next year, a survey released yesterday showed.
Conducted by Taiwan Indicators Research Survey (TISR), respondents were asked who they saw as qualified among 11 hopefuls in Taipei and six in Greater Taichung, both seats considered symbolic, must-win constituencies for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Lien, son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), was by far the winner with 51.1 percent of respondents saying that he qualifies as mayor. Incumbent KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) was second, with a support rate of 41.6 percent.
National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent, was ranked third at 38.3 percent, followed by former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) at 24.4 percent, KMT lawmaker Alex Tsai (蔡正元) at 23.9 percent and DPP Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) at 17.5 percent.
Taipei City Council deputy speaker Chou Po-ya (周柏雅) of the DPP was seventh at 16.8 percent, a shade above lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) with 16.6 percent. The poll collected 968 valid samples on Dec. 1 and Dec. 2 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Further breakdown of the responses from those who identified themselves as pan-green supporters found that Ko led with a support rate of 55.1 percent, the pan-blue camp’s Sean Lien came second with 41.9 percent and Ting third with 35.6 percent.
Yet the 43-year-old Sean Lien is still tight-lipped about his Taipei bid for the race, which is set to take place at the end of next year.
A separate poll conducted in Greater Taichung between Dec. 2 and Dec. 4, which collected 952 valid samples with a margin of errors of 3.2 percentage points, showed that Hu could be facing a strong challenger in his re-election campaign, in the form of DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
Hu, who has served in his current post for 13 years, still received the most support from respondents in the central city with 45.8 percent, but Lin was only a step behind at 43.3 percent.
DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) ranked third at 22.2 percent, while Deputy Minister of the Interior Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家淇), who served as deputy Greater Taichung mayor under Hu, was fourth at 20.5 percent. A pair of KMT lawmakers, Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) and Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), were fifth and sixth respectively.
Hu has not announced if he is seeking re-election, but most analysts predict that he will enter the race. The DPP has scheduled a public opinion poll on Dec. 30 between Lin and Tsai Chi-chang to determine the party’s candidate.
A video allegedly featuring retired general Kao An-kuo (高安國) calling on Taiwanese military officers to surrender to China and overthrow the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has sparked outrage and calls for him to be charged with treason. The video, titled “A message to Taiwanese military officers,” allegedly shows Kao saying: “I call on commanding officers of our military troops to stand up for Chinese nationalism, to take up this duty under heaven’s mandate to save Taiwanese from oppression and terrible suffering.” Dressed in military fatigues and a beret, the lieutenant general called on officers to overthrow the “fraudulent DPP regime,”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday rejected the claim Beijing has been making about Taiwan’s status, while thanking US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for raising concerns about Taiwan during her meeting with Chinese officials. Sherman met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on a visit to Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, with Wang urging Washington not to infringe on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Taiwan is part of China, a fundamental fact that would never change, and China has the right to take any action needed to restrain Taiwanese independence, Wang said, urging Washington to abide
HASTY REVIEW CLAIMS: Medigen’s vaccine, which is to start phase 3 clinical trials later this year, should not have received emergency use authorization, Hau said Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) is to appeal the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of Medigen Vaccine Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine, he said yesterday. The administration on July 19 granted Medigen emergency use authorization, even though the drugmaker had not yet completed phase 3 clinical trials. The government should not authorize the use of a vaccine that has not completed phase 3 trials, Hau said in Taipei on the sidelines of an event to distribute boxed meals with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康). Hau said the government had politicized
ELDERLY AT RISK: Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang said 90 percent of those who died in a local outbreak were aged 60 or older Taiwan won plaudits for its successful containment of COVID-19 last year, which made its recent virus resurgence all the more surprising. Data show that it was unusually deadly, as well. While Taiwan has seen fewer than 800 COVID-19 deaths in total, 500 of them occurred last month alone, amid its biggest virus wave to date. The pathogen got through the stringent border curbs that had kept local infections at bay for most of last year, seeding an outbreak that tore through the then-largely unvaccinated elderly population. This pushed the case-fatality ratio to as high as that seen in Italy and the UK
RSS