About 64 percent of people said that they supported Premier Cho Jung-tai’s (卓榮泰) self-financed trip to Japan to watch the World Baseball Classic game between Taiwan and the Czech Republic, while about 60 percent reported dissatisfaction with the legislature, a survey from the Taiwan Inspiration Association showed yesterday.
The survey showed that 64.2 percent of respondents expressed support, while 33 percent did not, indicating that a majority of the public approves of the direction of Taiwan-Japan relations, the association said.
The finding came from a Taiwan Public Opinion Survey released at a news conference yesterday.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The poll showed that about 70 percent of respondents said Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Li Zhenxiu (李貞秀) was not eligible to serve as a legislator, while 28.8 percent thought she was eligible.
The government believes Li was ineligible to run for office after failing to submit timely proof of forfeiture of her Chinese residency, and she has been unable to formally renounce her Chinese citizenship.
Among TPP supporters, 40.7 percent of respondents said she was ineligible.
Among respondents aged 40 or older, 72.9 percent said she was ineligible, while among Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters, 93.4 percent said she was not eligible, while 64.9 percent of independents held the same view.
National Cheng Kung University political science professor Wang Hung-jen (王宏仁) said the fact that even TPP supporters have doubts about Lee’s eligibility indicates that her voter base is relatively weak.
Soochow University political science associate professor Chen Fang-yu (陳方隅) said that he was concerned that about 30 remained convinced about Li’s eligibility despite her still holding Chinese citizenship.
“In a single-member district two-ballot system, election results can be swayed by controlling 2 to 3 percent of the votes,” Chen said.
The poll showed that public satisfaction with government performance has continued to rise, reaching 57.6 percent — the highest level since the survey began in September last year.
The main sources of dissatisfaction were political infighting (48.3 percent), fraud issues (40.4 percent) and judicial problems (26.5 percent).
By party affiliation, dissatisfaction rates among Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and TPP supporters both reached 70 percent, while only 11.2 percent of DPP supporters expressed dissatisfaction.
On the economic front, 51.4 percent of respondents said the economy is good, while 48.2 percent said it is not.
The legislature was identified as the most unpopular institution, with only 38.6 percent expressing satisfaction and 59.3 percent expressing dissatisfaction.
The primary reason cited for dissatisfaction was that “party interests outweigh national interests.”
Regarding the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.03 billion) special defense budget, 62.7 percent expressed support, while 35.7 percent opposed it.
Among KMT supporters, opposition reached 70 percent, while 54.3 percent of TPP supporters were opposed.
As for the military’s counter-amphibious drills, 56.7 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the government’s efforts to strengthen preparedness, while 42.2 percent were dissatisfied.
The poll was conducted last week among people aged 20 or above nationwide.
A stratified random sampling method was used, with 601 landline and 602 mobile phone samples, totaling 1,203 valid responses. At a 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error was 2.83 percentage points.
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