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DPP survey shows
majority lose faith in Ma’s capabilities
By Lee Hsin-fang and Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter, with staff
writer
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
spokesman Wang Min-Sheng speaks during a press conference in Taipei yesterday
concerning the DPP’s no-confidence motion against the Cabinet.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
A survey released yesterday showed that
more than 70 percent of respondents think President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is no
longer fit to serve as president and that nearly 65 percent consider Premier
Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) unfit for his position as well.
The survey, conducted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) between Monday
and Tuesday last week, showed that as many as 70.2 percent of respondents
consider Ma unsuitable for his position.
About 57 percent of respondents said the president should step down voluntarily
amid the snowballing wiretapping scandal involving him, the Special
Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and
Prosecutor-General Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), but 36 percent disagreed.
The scandal has intensified a political storm set off by the SID’s investigation
into allegations of improper lobbying by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng
(王金平), a wiretap-based probe that has been characterized by critics and the DPP
as a “political vendetta” waged by Ma against the legislative speaker.
As for Jiang, who has faced widespread criticism for his role in the “vendetta,”
approximately 63.7 percent of those polled said the academic-turned-politician
is unfit for premiership, with 24.5 percent disagreeing.
When asked if they support the legislature launching a no-confidence motion
against Jiang, more than half — 53.5 percent — of respondents said they
supported the move, while 37.6 percent oppose it.
About 48.5 percent of those polled think Ma should appoint another premier if
the no-confidence motion against Jiang succeeds, while 39.5 percent said the
president should dissolve the legislature.
According to the Additional Articles of the Constitution, the premier must
tender his resignation within 10 days of the legislature passing a motion of
no-confidence motion and may request that the president dissolve the
legislature.
The survey also showed that Jiang is losing popularity among pan-blue
supporters, with about 31.7 percent of respondents who identified themselves as
pan-blue are in favor of Jiang being removed via a no-confidence vote in the
legislature, compared with 77 percent saying they are the pan-green camp.
DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said the number of people who consider Ma
unfit for the presidency has been on the rise over the past month, citing
surveys it conducted on Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 in which 64 percent and 67 percent
of respondents respectively expressed this opinion.
“The trend indicates that more people deem Ma an unsuitable national leader
after seeing how he has disrupted the constitutional order and destabilized
society,” the spokesman said.
Wang Min-sheng called on the public to gather in front of the Legislative Yuan
at 8:30am on Tuesday, the day the legislature is due to vote on a no-confidence
motion that the DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union against Jiang initiated on
Friday.
“People can also call lawmakers from their constituencies and ask them to
support the no-confidence motion,” he said.
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