Support for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) rose again — this time by 7 percent — to 47.7 percent after her likely rival, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), earlier this month cleared a hurdle to becoming the party’s nominee, a survey showed yesterday.
Taiwan Indicators Survey Research found that 47.7 percent of respondents in a poll conducted on Thursday and Friday last week said they would vote for Tsai in January’s election, against 27.8 percent favoring Hung.
Compared with a poll from earlier this month, before Hung won the KMT’s primary with 46 percent approval in surveys ordered by the party, Tsai’s support increased 7 percentage points, while Hung’s declined from 30.5 percent to 27.8 percent.
The latest poll found that 39.6 percent of respondents who identified themselves as unaffiliated voters would vote for Tsai, against Hung’s 14.7 percent, while 20.2 percent said they would vote for neither.
On cross-strait relations, 35.4 percent of respondents wanted independence, 30.2 percent supported maintaining the “status quo” and 15.5 percent favored “unification.”
While Tsai has said she would work to maintain the “status quo” if elected, her stance on cross-strait relations was considered by 52.3 percent as pro-Taiwanese independence, while just 10.9 percent said that Tsai would maintain the “status quo.”
Of those 52.3 percent, 37 percent said Tsai favored realizing independence as soon as possible, 4.7 percent said Tsai would maintain the “status quo,” but would pursue independence in the future, and 10.6 percent said Tsai would maintain the “status quo” and consider the possibility of independence in the future.
After Hung was branded a candidate in favor of unification due to her proposed “one China, same interpretation” policy, she made attempts to move toward the middle of the political spectrum, mainly by interpreting “one China” as the “Republic of China.”
However, 45.7 percent of respondents considered Hung an advocate for unification. Among them, 37.1 percent said Hung would like to see unification as soon as possible, 3.8 percent said Hung would maintain the “status quo” and move toward unification in the future, while 4.8 percent said Hung would maintain the “status quo,” but consider pushing for unification in the future.
Prior surveys showed that just 29.6 percent of the public felt that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had adopted a radical stance toward unification, while KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was considered radical by 7.8 percent, both lower than the 37.1 percent who placed Hung in that category.
Hung yesterday said that she has always been in the middle of the spectrum on cross-strait ties, and that the relationships Taiwan has with the US, China and Japan are of equal importance.
DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said Tsai’s remarks on cross-strait relations should be the guidelines to understanding her cross-strait policy.
Meanwhile, a poll released by the Chinese-language United Daily News showed that, if voting were to take place the next day, 45 percent they would vote for Tsai, 33 percent would support Hung and 23 percent declined to answer.
DPP legislators said they were not surprised by the numbers.
“The DPP should still be very cautious, because the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] still has a very good local mobilization network and a large amount of party assets,” DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said.
Additional reporting by Su Fun-her and Loa Iok-sin
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