TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- In the wake of more gloomy polls for sitting President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) Chairman Yu Ying-lung (游盈隆) is urging Tsai not to run for re-election on behalf of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), citing her slim odds of winning based on the latest polls.
Taiwan's presidential election is only 10 months away, while the two major political parties, the DPP and Kuomintang (KMT), have yet to nail down presidential candidates, given the challenges of big-name contestants in primaries.
Yu recently reasoned in a commentary that the DPP should play its trump card to stay in power for the 2020 presidential race.
According to the TPOF's latest poll, former premier William Lai (賴清德) leads potential candidates for the 2020 presidential race, and remains ahead of Tsai Ing-wen by a whopping 22 percentage points for the DPP primary.
The poll also suggests the ruling DPP doesn't stand a chance of remaining in power if Tsai competes with Kuomintang's (KMT) strongest candidate, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), and independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), as shown in the charts below.
Yu said Lai, the former premier and Tainan mayor, outperforms Tsai in seven national leadership qualities rated by poll participants, including: caring for the needs of the people, the capability to help Taiwan's economy grow, ability to lead changes, strong leadership, honesty and reliability, and capability of handling the complicated cross-strait issue.
"It is embarrassing for Tsai as she is proud of her achievements of improving the international image of Taiwan, attracting recognition from international society, and strengthening relations with the United States. Apparently, Taiwanese voters do not buy it," Yu added.
As for Tsai's abilities to lead change for the country, according to the poll, Tsai trailed Lai by a whopping 28 percentage points. Also, just one-fourth of voters approve of her reform efforts.
Yu concluded that Tsai need to review her failing leadership over the past three years and to think carefully about her slim odds of leading the DPP to win the 2020 race, based on the poll results. It would appear, Yu said, that withdrawing from the power struggle would enable the DPP to play its trump card.
