A new survey shows that close to half of the public approves of President Tsai Ing-wen’s performance, down since her innauguration two months ago. The results also show a split of opinion along party lines.
The survey was commissioned by Taiwan Thinktank, an organization that is favorable to the president’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The results are based on polling conducted by telephone on Tuesday and Wednesday. Pollsters used data provided by around 1000 respondents.
Taiwan Thinktank released the survey results Saturday. 49.1% of respondents reported favorable views of Tsai’s administration, while 36% voiced dissatisfaction. Disapproval rose 13.4 percentage points from a previous poll conducted in June.
The survey results show that views of Tsai’s administration are divided along party lines. Among respondents affiliated with Tsai’s DPP, approval ratings rose from 75.9% to 83.3% over the past month. Meanwhile, disapproval nearly doubled during the same period among respondents supporting the opposition KMT. According to the survey results, the percentage of KMT voters dissatisfied with Tsai grew from 48.4% to 82.1% during the past month.
The survey had a confidence level of 95% and margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. A similar poll conducted by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation made news last week after it showed that Tsai’s approval has fallen 14 percentage points since her inauguration in May According to the poll results, released Tuesday, Tsai’s approval rating is at 56%.