Nearly two-thirds, or 63.8 percent, of Taiwanese are dissatisfied with the government’s policy of allowing imports of pork containing traces of ractopamine, a poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed.
The survey found that 27.6 percent of respondents were satisfied with the policy.
Asked if they would support overturning the policy in a referendum, 62.3 percent of respondents said “yes,” while 30.8 percent said “no,” the foundation said.
According to the poll, 62.4 percent said they would likely vote in a referendum over the matter, while 33.4 percent said they would not.
A referendum question spearheaded by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) would ask voters on Aug. 28 if they agree that the government should completely ban imports of meat, offal and related products from pigs fed ractopamine, a leanness-enhancing additive.
Another referendum that might take place on the same day proposes moving a planned liquefied natural gas terminal from the coast of Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) to protect algal reefs in the area. The signature drive for the referendum is being led by Rescue Datan’s Algal Reefs Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政).
According to the poll, 53.8 percent of respondents said they would like to see an algal reef referendum pass, while 24.9 percent said they would not.
Of the respondents, 51.4 percent said they would vote in such a referendum, while 34.5 percent said they would not.
The two referendums have an overlapping supporter base and those voting for one would likely vote for the other as well, the foundation said.
The poll also asked respondents about the government’s COVID-19 vaccine policies, with 62 percent saying they were satisfied with the policies and 30.4 percent saying they were not.
According to the poll, 74.4 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the vaccine purchase program proposed by Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), while 15.2 percent said they were not.
The poll found that 68.6 percent of respondents said they were confident that Taiwan would produce its own COVID-19 vaccines, while 24.2 percent said they were not.
Asked whether Taiwan should avoid using the phrase “Wuhan virus” to refer to COVID-19, 49 percent of the respondents said “no,” while 37 percent said “yes.”
Popular support for President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was 58.4 percent, while her dissatisfaction rate was 27.1 percent, the poll found.
Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) popular support and dissatisfaction rates were 54.4 percent and 33.1 percent respectively, it showed.
The poll questions were designed by foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) and conducted by the Focus Survey Research company on Monday and Tuesday last week.
The poll collected 1,079 valid samples and has a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
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