The approval rating of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration remains high, despite the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) campaign against the lifting of a ban on US pork imports, a My-Formosa.com poll showed on Tuesday.
My-Formosa.com is a pan-green-leaning media company unaffiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The approval rate of the Tsai administration was 59.8 last month, 2 percentage points higher than in January, the poll showed.
Tsai’s approval rate was 59.2 percent, down 0.4 percentage points, and the rate of Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was 54.2 percent, up 2.2 percentage points, it showed.
Su’s rate has recovered from a slump in January, My-Formosa.com president Wu Tsu-chia (吳子嘉) said.
The high level of confidence in Tsai and Su suggests that the KMT failed to leverage the controversy over the lifting of restrictions on imports from the US of pork products containing ractopamine residue and beef from cattle 30 months or older, Wu said.
Sixty-seven percent approved of the government’s COVID-19 response and its plans to provide vaccinations, while 26.4 percent disapproved, the poll showed.
If COVID-19 vaccines become available next week, 33.3 percent were willing to receive the jab, while 59.4 percent were unwilling, it showed.
Asked about who they would support in the 2024 presidential election, 21.1 percent said that they would support Vice President William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP and 19.1 percent said they would support New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the KMT, the poll showed.
DPP Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) would be supported by 10.1 percent of respondents, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party would be supported by 9.8 percent, and former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT would be supported by 8.7 percent, it showed.
Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), who last month rejoined the KMT and said he wants to run in the 2024 presidential election, would be supported by 6.1 percent of respondents, the lowest among those named in the poll, it showed.
Among potential presidential candidates, Hou received the highest public-trust rating with 82 percent, followed by Cheng (64.5 percent), Lai (64.1 percent) and Chu (53.2 percent), the poll showed.
Forty-six percent of respondents said that they would distrust Ko, more than the 45.1 percent who said they would trust him, it showed.
Jaw ranked last, with 27.1 percent saying that they would trust him and 56 percent saying they would distrust him, it showed.
Designed by veteran pollster Tai Li-an (戴立安), the survey was conducted on Feb. 24 and 25, and included interviews with 1,074 people.
It has a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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