Puma Shen leads Taipei mayoral race with 52.6% support, poll shows
A new poll shows DPP mayoral candidate Puma Shen leading incumbent Chiang Wan-an 52.6% to 35.3% among Taipei voters. Shen leads in 11 of 12 districts, with urban renewal emerging as the top issue for the next mayor.
Support for Democratic Progressive Party Legislator and Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen has reached 52.6 per cent, compared with 35.3 per cent for Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an of the Chinese Nationalist Party, a poll released yesterday by the Strategy and Public Research Institute of Taiwan showed. The poll was conducted after the candidates' first debate on Saturday, and marks the first time Shen's support has surpassed 50 per cent, widening the gap between the two to 17.3 percentage points.
A breakdown of voting intentions by district found that Shen led Chiang in 11 of Taipei's 12 districts. His strongest support came from Datong District, where he received 64 per cent, while Chiang received 31.8 per cent. Shen secured more than 50 per cent support in eight districts: Datong, Zhongshan, Songshan, Daan, Wanhua, Shilin, Beitou and Neihu.
Asked who they expect to win the election, 47.9 per cent of respondents said they think Shen would win, and 40.1 per cent said they believe Chiang would. As for who performed better in the debate, 41.2 per cent chose Shen, 26.3 per cent favoured Chiang, and 20 per cent said they did not watch. Regarding Chiang's performance as mayor, 48.3 per cent said they were dissatisfied, 38.4 per cent said they were satisfied and 10.1 per cent expressed no opinion.
Asked which issue they most want the next mayor to prioritise, urban renewal topped the list at 24.3 per cent, followed by transportation (15.2 per cent), environmental hygiene (12 per cent), education (11.9 per cent), long-term care and healthcare (9.7 per cent), housing (7.5 per cent) and public safety (6.4 per cent). Another 6.2 per cent had no opinion or cited other issues, while 6.9 per cent declined to answer.
In response to media queries about the poll, Shen said that while polls are one way of gauging public opinion, he remains cautious about the results. Chiang separately said that all polls could serve as a reference, but the most important thing was the content of the debate, urging people to watch the entire debate.
The poll was commissioned by the institute and conducted by Woworld Marketing of Technology through artificial intelligence-assisted telephone calls on Saturday and yesterday. It surveyed 1,436 Taipei residents aged 20 or older and had a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
