Thu, May 18, 2017 page3

• Tsai and DPP lead their rivals in poll

  CANDIDATES: The DPP should consider a candidate for Taipei mayor rather than forgoing the race, as the approval rating gap with the KMT in the region is closing

  • By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
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  Despite a stagnant approval rating, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is still the preferred president over Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a comfortable lead over the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in voter preference, an opinion poll released yesterday showed.

  The poll pitted Tsai against the KMT’s Chu and Gou for the 2020 presidential election, with 37.6 percent of respondents saying they would vote for Tsai, 30.1 percent favoring Gou and 15.3 percent for Chu, the Taiwan Style Foundation poll showed.

  However, Tsai trailed Guo among voters who identified as pan-blue or neutral, with 30.6 percent of politically neutral respondents saying they would vote for Guo and 16.4 percent for Tsai.

  

  A member of the Taiwan Style Foundation yesterday releases the results of an opinion poll during a news conference in Taipei, showing that President Tsai Ing-wen’s approval rating was 41.3 percent and her disapproval rating was 52.9 percent.

  Photo: CNA

  Asked if Gou could win the presidency over Tsai in a one-on-one election as a KMT candidate — as was suggested in an opinion poll by the Chinese-language China Times earlier this month — foundation executive officer Anson Hung (洪耀南) said it would make the race a bipartisan competition and voters would be more likely to vote according to their party identification, with both the DPP and the KMT able to consolidate their voter base.

  If Gou was changed to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as the non-partisan candidate competing with Tsai and Chu, 31.9 percent of respondents would vote for Tsai, 25.8 percent for Chu and 21.8 percent for Ko.

  The DPP also led as the public’s preferred plotical party, with the New Power Party (NPP) overtaking the KMT as the second-most favored party, the polled showed.

  The poll showed that 39.4 percent of respondents gave the DPP a favorable opinion rating, while 32.7 percent had a negative opinion and 23.2 percent were indifferent.

  The NPP was viewed favorably by 30.3 percent and negatively by 33.4 percent of the respondents, with 29.8 percent being indifferent.

  The KMT was viewed favorably by 25.2 percent and negatively by 37.5 percent, with 31.7 percent indifferent, while 51.4 percent said they were indifferent toward the People First Party, with 23.9 percent having a good impression and 19.4 percent a negative impression of the party.

  Of those who said they would vote in the next year’s special municipality and county commissioner elections, 33.9 percent said they would vote for the DPP, 23.5 percent would vote for the KMT and 13.5 percent for independent candidates.

  Tsai’s approval rating stands at 54 percent, with a 39.7 percent disapproval rating, while 52.9 percent of the respondents were dissatisfied with her performance and 41.3 percent were satisfied.

  Meanwhile, former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) was ahead of the other candidates in the KMT’s chairperson election with 22.3 percent support, closely followed by KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) at 21.8 percent and KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) at 21.2 percent.

  Dissatisfaction with Tsai remains high as people either disapprove of the pace and scale of reforms or disapprove of the reforms entirely, DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said.

  “That Chu has less support than Gou suggests a structural change in the pan-blue camp, because voters prefer [an unconventional figure] over a traditional KMT politician,” DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said.

  In the constituencies of Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung, the KMT is still the most favored party with a 27.4 percent support rating, but it is closely followed by the DPP with 26.7 percent, with independent candidates — in particular, Ko — trailing with 17.2 percent.

  With the KMT’s lead minimized, the DPP should consider fielding its own candidate for Taipei mayor instead of forgoing the election to make way for Ko, DPP legislators said.

  The poll was conducted from Saturday to Monday with 1,271 valid samples and a 2.75 percentage point margin of error.
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