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NPP approaches KMT in poll

NPP approaches KMT in poll

NPP approaches KMT in poll

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Support levels for the New Power Party are approaching those of the main opposition Kuomintang, according to the results of an opinion poll presented by the Taiwan Thinktank Saturday.
The July poll also compared results of opinions about president, premier and political parties with similar surveys conducted each of the previous months.
Looking for party preferences, the poll found that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party still held the highest level of support, 29.2 percent. The KMT, which ruled Taiwan for decades until 2000, and again from 2008 until last May, received the support of 17.5 percent.
However, the NPP, which originates in the Sunflower protest movement of 2014, was closing its gap with the KMT, attracting 16 percent of poll respondents. The NPP, which only holds five seats in the 113-member Legislative Yuan, has declared as one of its goals the replacement of the KMT as Taiwan’s main opposition party.
Presidential candidate James Soong’s People First Party had a support level of 5.4 percent and the New Party 3 percent, with other groups further behind, the Taiwan Thinktank said.
As to President Tsai Ing-wen and Premier Lin Chuan, their support was stable but the number of people dissatisfied with them had grown rapidly since they took office last May 20.
About half of the poll respondents, 49.1 percent, were satisfied with Tsai, compared to 52.4 percent in May, but the share of those dissatisfied had risen from 12.5 percent at the time of her inauguration to 22.6 percent in June to 36 percent in July, the Taiwan Thinktank said.
A similar trend could be seen for the premier, with his level of support staying on course but a sharp rise for the opposite opinion. The share of those satisfied with Lin diminished from 47 percent to 45.1 percent, while 39.5 percent were dissatisfied compared to 14.8 percent shortly after he took office.
Several controversies have recently dominated the political scene, including disputes about working time and days off, a law about ill-gotten assets opposed by the KMT, and a rare airline strike.
The survey was conducted by Trends Research on July 26-27, counted 1,078 valid responses and had a margin of error of 3 percent, the Taiwan Thinktank said.