The controversial policy recently gained attention following an oral debate on whether the death penalty is unconstitutional that took place Thursday in the Constitutional Court. The court will make a judgement by the end of September at the latest, though if it rules that the death penalty is unconstitutional and therefore should be abolished, the results of the TPOF poll indicate that the majority of the public will disagree.
Out of more than 1,000 samples taken from May 20 to 22, the statistics show public opinion regarding the abolition of the death penalty as 4.9% strongly agree, 5.1% moderately agree, 21.3% moderately do not agree, 63.3% strongly do not agree, 4% have no opinion, and 1.4% cannot decide.
TPOF Chairman Michael You (游盈隆) pointed out that the opinions opposing the abolition of the death penalty are evenly distributed across gender, age, education level, occupation, ethnic group, political party, geographical region, and even reunification and independence supporters. He said the reason behind why such a strong opinion is held throughout Taiwanese society merits further exploration.