TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former Taipei Deputy Mayor Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) leads in a tight Taipei mayoral competition with votes divided among three hopefuls, a new poll has suggested.
Released on Monday (Oct. 24), the survey conducted last week by QuickseeK, a data analysis company for Asian countries, placed independent Huang ahead with the support of 33.7%, followed by the Kuomintang’s (KMT) Wayne Chiang (獎萬安), 33.2%, and 27.3% for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Chen Shih-chung (陳時中).
Huang also emerged as the favorite among voters, commanding 57.8% support, while Chiang and Chen gained 46.7% and 33.3%, respectively. The majority of respondents did not like either the KMT or DPP, with 62.2% of voters saying they dislike the former and 60.2% of the latter.
A look into the flow of votes indicated that Huang earned the support of 49.8% of those who voted for incumbent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in 2018. Among those supporting Ko in the last election, 29% would swing to Chen and 17% to Chiang.
With the election only a month away, though, those backing Huang may switch their allegiance to Chiang if Huang fails to score a decisive breakthrough, according to the report. This is based on the finding that up to 54.4% of the respondents don't want Chen to win the race, hence the higher probability of tactical voting.
Conducted between Oct. 17-22, the survey collected 1,203 valid samples from Taipei residents aged 20 and older via an online questionnaire sent through a text message. It has a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of plus and minor 2.83 percentage points.