TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — RW News released online polling data on Wednesday (July 19) on Taiwan’s presidential race, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) boasting a 10% lead over second-place competitor, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
The RW News poll shows Lai with 38.48% of public support, Ko with 28.34%, and Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) of the Kuomintang (KMT) with 21.29%. Compared to other recent polls in June and July, Ko’s support has ticked down slightly, while Hou appears to have regained a few points.
Among the total sample size of 12,464 valid responses, 7.8% of respondents said they are still undecided and 4.09% of respondents said they would not vote for any of the candidates.
The survey was conducted in cooperation with Pearson Data and targeted internet users in Taiwan over the age of 20 between July 12 and July 16. RW News reports a 98% confidence level in results, with a margin of error of +/- 0.88%.
Compared to the previous RW News presidential poll in June, the newest survey indicates that Lai’s support among the age 20 to 29 demographic has increased by 1%, while support among the age 30 to 39 demographic has risen by 3%. Meanwhile, Ko appears to have lost 6.3% of support among the age 30 to 39 demographic, with a notable drop in support among female voters in their 30s.
As for Hou, his polling performance has remained mostly unchanged, with his strongest support among Taiwanese voters in their 50s and above. Despite a minor half-point drop in overall support compared to the June RW News poll, which is within the new poll’s margin of error, Hou’s support among men in their 60s and above actually ticked up 1.35%.
The survey reportedly analyzed social media profile tags to distribute online prompts for the survey evenly among users of different genders, age groups, and geographic locations in Taiwan, to try and accurately reflect the composition of Taiwan’s voting population.
