Support for the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) waned only slightly from last month amid a spate of investigations into the party and its members, while backing for the New Power Party (NPP) nearly tripled, a Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation survey found today.
Asked which political party respondents support the most, the Democratic Progressive Party had the greatest backing at 35.5 percent, up from 34.1 percent last month.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was second, unchanged from 23.2 percent.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation
Support for the TPP slipped to 12 percent from 13.8 percent, while those saying they do not support any party declined to 21.3 percent from 26.5 percent the month before.
Foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said that responses were relatively unchanged from last month.
Despite facing an investigation for improper campaign finance reporting and its Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) being detained during a corruption investigation, support for the TPP only fell 1.8 percentage points, You said.
The two major parties also did not appear to get a boost from the investigations, he added.
However, while the TPP in its heyday was the choice of people aged 20 to 44, it now only leads among the 20-to-24 demographic, he said.
It also lost support among people with advanced degrees and urban professionals, which used to be strong voting blocks for the party, he added.
Another notable change came in support for the beleaguered NPP, whose support jumped to 5.1 percent from 1.3 percent last month.
NPP Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) said the party does not put too much weight behind opinion polls, but would continue to act as a check on the ruling party while the KMT and TPP “are busy defending corruption suspects.”
The current situation in the legislature is “bizarre,” with many opposition politicians fighting political battles and corruption investigations, leaving no way to properly monitor the minority ruling party, Wang said, vowing to “do well what needs to be done.”
The survey was conducted from Monday to Wednesday last week over telephone, collecting 1,016 valid responses.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
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