Support for Chen at all-time low: poll

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on May 19, 2006. It reports that according to a recent survey conducted by the Shih Hsin University, President Chen Shui-bian's approval rating stands at just 16 percent. This is the lowest level ever recorded for the president in all the surveys conducted by the univesity.

Specifically, the nationwide survey received 1,063 valid responses. It found that as many as 77 percent of Taiwanese are dissatisfied with Chen's performance. Meanwhile, only 26 percent of the survey's respondents expressed approval for Chen's recent visit to Latin America.

According to survey analysts, the president's low approval rating may be related to a series of corruption and insider trading scandals that took place recently. These scandals involved high-ranking government officials and the president's son-in-law.

In contrast, Premier Su Tseng-chang's approval rating stands at 48 percent. The survey found that only 28 percent of Taiwanese are unhappy with Su's performance.

In general, 31 percent of the survey's respondents said that they were satisfied with the Cabinet's performance, while 50 percent were not. When asked to rate the performance of Chen, Su and the Cabinet, the respondents rated Chen 44.5 percent, Su 60.6 percent, and the Cabinet 54.4 percent.

According to the survey, the three Cabinet agencies with the highest approval rating were the Consumer Protection Commission, the Environmental Protection Administration, and the Ministry of the Interior, in that order. In the mean time, the most popular Cabinet members were the vice premier, the minister of transportation and communications, and the minister of foreign affairs.

Finally, according to the survey, 31 percent of the people in Taiwan expressed confidence in Su's pledge to improve Taiwan's law and order situation within six months, compared to 61 percent who expressed no confidence in the measure. This result was similar to that of a survey conducted two months ago.

Specifically, although 59 percent of the survey's respondents said that they felt safe walking around their neighborhood at night, only 24 percent were satisfied with Taiwan's overall law and order situation. According to these respondents, the most urgent crimes that the government should tackle are fraud, illegal gun possession, drug trafficking, organized crime, women's and children's safety, robbery, sex-related crimes, and gambling.

Compared to the results of the survey conducted two months ago, 19 percent of respondents thought that Taiwan's law and order situation had improved, 16 percent thought that it had gotten worse, and 60 percent thought that it had not changed.