Nearly half of respondents in a recent poll were not confident in the government’s ability to solve unemployment, the National Policy Foundation said yesterday.
Respondents gave an average score of 5.4 out of 10 for their confidence that the nation’s economy would improve, the poll showed.
Asked whether they had confidence that the wealth gap would be reduced, respondents gave an average score of 4.39 out of 10.
Confidence in social conflict being reduced was rated 4.91 out of 10 on average, the survey showed.
Respondents had an average confidence of 5.19 out of 10 that justice in Taiwan would improve, it showed.
Nearly 60 percent said that they were not confident in the fairness of the judicial system, it showed.
About 70 percent said that President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration should respond strongly to Japan’s actions in a territorial dispute over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), the poll showed.
Nearly 50 percent of respondents said that the government’s “negligent” attitude toward the Diaoyutais issue showed that Tsai’s claims that she would protect the nation’s sovereignty are not being backed by action.
The survey also polled support for political parties.
The Democratic Progressive Party received support from 32.9 percent of respondents, followed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) with 13.7 percent, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) with 6.6 percent, the New Power Party with 5.9 percent, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party with 0.8 percent and the People First Party with 0.2 percent, the poll showed.
Foundation assistant research fellow Chen Kuan-an (陳冠安) said the results showed that the KMT has more than twice as much support as the TPP.
If the KMT and the TPP were to form an alliance, the TPP should play a supporting role to maximize its effectiveness, Chen said.
The foundation — which is affiliated with the KMT — commissioned Taiwan Real Survey to conduct the poll, which was carried out in telephone interviews from June 14 to Tuesday last week.
The poll was based on the responses of 1,130 adults aged 20 or older. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.92 percentage points.
Additional reporting by CNA
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