TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — With the next presidential election less than one year away, the opposition Kuomintang’s (KMT) popularity surpassed the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), an opinion poll showed Tuesday (Feb. 21).

However, the biggest loser according to the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) survey was former Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).

While support for the KMT surged from 21.5% in January to 27.1% in February, the DPP also saw its approval rise from 26.1% to 26.9%, ending up barely 0.2% below the main opposition party. In contrast, the TPP plunged from 20.3% to 12.3% in the survey, while no other political party reached 2%.

TPOF Chairman Ying-lung You (游盈隆) saw a link between the rise of the KMT and the decline of the TPP, with voters switching between the two parties, especially in the wake of the KMT victory in the Nov. 2022 local elections.

The poll also asked voters for their choices in the January 2024 presidential elections. Vice President and DPP Chairman Lai Ching-te (賴清德) received 27.7%, New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) of the KMT led the field with 32.4%, and Ko received 19.5%.

According to You, the results showed that not only Lai could not be certain of victory, but if the KMT nominated Hou, the DPP might face an uphill battle trying to hold on to power after eight years in government.

Focus Survey Research conducted the survey on behalf of the TPOF Feb. 13-14, producing 1,072 valid responses with a margin of error of 2.99%.