TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The head of the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) has suggested the Kuomintang (KMT) release its internal polling after the party questioned the impartiality of TPOF’s sampling.

TPOF released a poll on Monday (Aug. 21) that showed the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate with 43.4% support, compared to the KMT candidate’s 13.6%. The poll results differed sharply from a My Formosa poll released days before that still showed the DPP in the lead, but had the KMT at over 20%, putting the party’s candidate in second place after months in third.

Responding to reports that the KMT Chair Eric Chu (朱立倫) had questioned the poll's sampling method, TPOF Chair Ying-lung You (游盈隆) recommended the party release its own polls for comparison.

“We commission a professional polling company to conduct sampling and interviews, and have done so for more than seven years,” You said. He added that because of this, the poll results would be without issue.

A comparison of the two August poll results. (Taiwan News image)

You also said that since July, TPOF has begun sampling via cellphone in addition to landline at a rate of 30% to 70% each, and that this should produce results “closest to the truth. Our results may be different from other pollsters because of this,” he said.

“I suggest that, for Chair Zhu, there is no harm in disclosing his own party's internal reference polls, making them public, and comparing them, so as to clear up his and everyone else’s doubts,” You said.

Chu responded to You again on Tuesday, and said that there was no need to release the KMT’s internal polls, per Tai Sounds. Zhu said the party’s polls were consistent with “media polls,” a possible reference to the My Formosa poll, which was published by the media outlet, and showed the KMT’s candidate in second place and trending upwards.

Ying-yung You's response to KMT suggestions that the TPOF poll suffered from sampling bias.