Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is supported by 30.6 percent of Greater Taichung voters, just behind Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who has 31.4 percent of support, according to a poll released yesterday by the Research Center for Marketing and Public Opinion at Taichung’s National Chung Hsing University and local radio station Lucky 7.
The poll showed nearly one-third of Taichung citizens, 30.9 percent, did not say who they would support. It was conducted from Thursday to Saturday last week among 1,068 respondents aged 20 and over. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
With oly 0.8 percentage points separating the two candidates, Hu, who has been in office for 12 years, yesterday said he remains confident he would win re-election in the Nov. 29 election even as his opponent, Lin, touted his persistent — though narrowing — lead in opinion polls. Hu said he would work harder to win over swing voters in the remaining 11 days of the campaign.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Responding to the survey, Lin’s office stressed that their candidate was leading by about 10 percentage points in polls conducted by other local media outlets.
Lin’s campaign headquarters spokesman Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷) said the office would make every effort to boost support for Lin ahead of election day.
The latest polls conducted by four of Taiwan’s major Chinese-language newspapers showed that Lin is leading, but that the gap has narrowed.
Photo: CNA
A recent survey commissioned by the Apple Daily found Hu trailing by 8.8 percentage points, with Lin on 41.3 percent and Hu on 32.5 percent. A survey conducted by the newspaper in September found a difference of 10.1 percentage points with Lin on 37.5 percent and Hu on 27.4 percent.
A poll by the United Daily News found the divide has narrowed to 12 percentage points, with Lin backed by 43 percent of respondents and Hu by 31 percent. A poll last month described Lin as leading with 45 percent of the vote.
Another poll by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) found Lin’s support had dropped from its highest point of 46.15 percent in August to 44.06 percent this month. Support for Hu meanwhile rose from 22.88 percent in August to 28.38 percent this month.
A fourth poll by the China Times, on the other hand, found the difference to be within 3 percentage points earlier this month.
Polls by the China Times have seen Lin’s lead shrink from 17 percentage points early last month, with Lin on 49 percent and Hu on 32 percent, to 8 percentage points late last month, with Lin on 43 percent and Hu on 35 percent, to what looks like a neck-and-neck race in the latest poll, with Lin on 43 percent and Hu on 40 percent.
Meanwhile, SET-TV yesterday released the results of a survey conducted by its polling center, which showed Hu was supported by 32.9 percent of respondents and Lin by 43.4 percent.
Additional reporting by Chang Ya-ching
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