Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday urged his supporters to disrupt opinion polls on January’s presidential election, saying that they do not genuinely reflect public opinion.
Han, who has fallen further behind President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in polls on the presidential race, asked his supporters to “confuse” the pollsters with one answer when interviewed by telephone: “supporting no one but Tsai Ing-wen.”
“From now on we all let the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] feel happy until Jan. 10,” Han wrote sarcastically on Facebook in the morning.
Photo: CNA
Just a day earlier, Han had on Facebook urged supporters to decline to answer questions in any poll on the presidential race to stem what he called “fake opinion polls.”
Han is competing against Tsai, who is seeking re-election as the DPP’s candidate, and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) in the election.
Two polls found that Han trailed Tsai by more than 20 percentage points.
A Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation poll released on Monday found that Tsai had 55.2 percent support, compared with 26.3 percent for Han and 7.6 percent for Soong.
A poll released by news channel ETtoday on the same day gave Han 23.6 percent support, compared with 44.4 percent for Tsai and 9.5 percent for Soong.
The polls were released one week after an Apple Daily survey found Tsai leading Han 42.3 percent to 24 percent and a TVBS poll had Tsai leading 45 percent to 37 percent.
Han’s support has suffered from bad press, including over previous purchases of expensive properties that undercut his image as an everyday man and verbal gaffes, as well as China’s growing belligerence over Hong Kong, which has helped Tsai and the DPP.
However, Han has said that some people were using “fake public opinion polls” to confuse voters and hurt his supporters’ faith in him.
“No surveys for the presidential election of the Republic of China can obtain true opinions now,” Han said.
People are afraid of offering their true opinions because of fear of possible “political retaliation,” he said, without elaborating.
Tsai yesterday said that public opinion polls reflect people’s free will.
“When the polling results are good, we shall sprint with all strength, reinforcing the government’s practices; when the results are bad, we shall reflect on ourselves deeply,” Tsai said.
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