While tycoon Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) quest for the presidency has drawn a lot of attention, many are concerned whether he would be able to keep his business and the presidency separate if he were elected, a survey released yesterday showed.
According to the survey by the Chinese Communication Management Society, 46.6 percent of respondents said they would be concerned whether the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful would be able to keep his business interests and the office of the president separate, while 33.3 percent said they believe Gou’s experience running companies would be useful in running the nation.
Asked whom they would vote for if Gou were to run against President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in next year’s presidential election, 40.1 percent picked Gou, while 37 percent favored Tsai, the survey showed.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
In a three-way contest that included Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), 28.4 percent of respondents chose Gou, 26.1 percent Tsai and 25.4 percent Ko.
Although Gou led in both the two-way and three-way polls, the margin between him and Tsai is close to the margin of error, Chinese Communication Management Society board member Niu Tse-hsun (鈕則勳) said.
The reason for the small margin is because Gou has yet to take full advantage of his greatest strength, which is his ability to improve the nation’s economy as the nation’s top entrepreneur, he said.
Although Gou has mentioned a number of his economic policy plans, they have failed to transform into memorable slogans and images, he added.
While the chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co has been trying to transform his image as an authoritative figure to a friendly and accessible star through increased interaction with the public, sniffing the soil and spending the night at people’s houses, he would find it hard to compete with Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who has excelled in maintaining that image, Niu said.
Gou should focus on his strength, Niu added.
The poll also found that 54.6 percent of respondents felt it would be inappropriate for Han to run for president shortly after being elected mayor, while 31.3 percent said it would be acceptable because it is his right to do so.
Asked whether they think it would be inappropriate for Ko to run for president shortly after being elected, 35.8 percent said it would, but 47.9 percent said it would be acceptable because he has already completed his first term as mayor.
The poll collected 1,823 samples from May 27 to Saturday. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points.
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