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Ma’s approval rating
plunges to 9.2 percent
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) approval rating hit a new low of 9.2 percent, the
first time the rating has dipped to to single-digits, in a public opinion poll
released yesterday amid widespread public dissatisfaction with Ma’s role in
ongoing political strife within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Only 9.2 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with Ma’s
performance in his second term, which began in May last year, while 80.5 percent
of those polled disapproved of his performance and 10.3 percent declined to
comment, according to the poll conducted by ERA Survey Research Center, a
subsidiary of ERA Television.
Asked if they have confidence about Ma’s leadership in the remainder of his
term, 72 percent of the respondents said no, while 16.1 percent said yes and
11.9 percent declined to comment.
In another poll, released by TVBS last week, Ma had an approval rating of 11
percent, between 2 and 6 percentage points down from his rating of between 13
and 17 percent in the past six months.
Even former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who is serving a 20-year prison term
for corruption, at the height of and in the aftermath of his corruption scandal
never registered single-digit approval ratings.
The survey, conducted on Friday and Saturday, also asked respondents about
political turmoil in the KMT surrounding the revoking of Legislative Speaker
Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) party membership after Wang was accused of illegal
lobbying by Ma.
Almost two-thirds, or 63.2 percent, of those polled were not satisfied with the
way Ma, who is also KMT chairman, had handled the controversy, while 49.9
percent of respondents said Wang had dealt with the incident well.
Almost half — 49.2 percent — of the respondents said they would support a recall
campaign against Ma because the president had infringed on human rights and
jeopardized the constitutional system, with 34.7 percent opposing a recall and
16.1 percent saying they have no opinion.
Wang, whose KMT membership is in question, despite a court ruling upholding his
request for an injunction to retain his membership temporarily, appeared to
receive solid support from the respondents as 50 percent of those polled said
they would not support Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Shiu-chu (洪秀柱) replacing
Wang, even if Wang was eventually stripped of his speaker position.
Regarding Wang’s future, 34 percent of respondents said the 72-year-old should
do his best to stay with the KMT, with 20.4 percent calling for Wang’s
retirement from politics and 86 percent urging him to establish a new political
party.
The poll collected 1,039 valid samples and had a margin of errors of 3
percentage points.
Meanwhile, Ma posted a message on his Facebook yesterday saying that national
stability and smooth governance were key, but that efforts to uphold equality
and justice, and the maintenance of judicial independence, should not be
ignored.
Undue influence by senior officials in legal cases is a question that is clearly
on either the side of right, or wrong, Ma wrote.
There is no neutral ground or gray area on the matter, and I would not
compromise on this stance, Ma wrote, adding that this was his solemn promise to
the people.
Additional reporting by Jake Chung
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