Chiang Wan-an of KMT favored in Taipei: survey

• By Huang Hsin-po / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) is the most favored potential contender for the 2022 Taipei mayoral election and is likely to beat rivals named by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), a poll released by the Taiwan Brain Trust showed yesterday.

The KMT commands the highest support rate of all parties in the city, 28.3 percent, followed by the DPP’s 20.4 percent, the TPP’s 8.7 percent and 3.4 percent for the New Power Party (NPP), the poll showed.

The poll showed that 19.7 percent of respondents had no preference for any political party, 19.3 percent valued the quality of individual candidates more than their political affiliation, and 0.2 percent opted for other parties.

Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times

Among possible contenders for the election, Chiang garnered a support rate of 43.2 percent, beating Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) of the DPP (36.6 percent) and Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) of the TPP (13.3 percent), it showed.

If the NPP were to name former party chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) as its candidate, he would win 7.3 percent of the vote, while Chen’s support rate would drop to 33.1 percent, Vivian Huang’s to 7.3 percent and Chiang’s to 43 percent, the poll showed.

Chiang outdid other KMT hopefuls, garnering 64.7 percent of support when pitted against KMT Institute of Revolutionary Practice director Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) with 8.5 percent and former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) with 8.3 percent, while 18.5 percent did not choose from among those three, it showed.

Among DPP hopefuls, Chen led with 31.9 percent support, followed by Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) with 15.9 percent, New Frontier Foundation deputy executive Enoch Wu (吳怡農) with 15.2 percent and Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) with 5.2 percent, while 31.8 percent did not choose from among those four, it showed.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) wins in 2014 and 2018 were linked to a split among KMT supporters, said Wu Shih-chang (吳世昌), director of the Taiwan Brain Trust’s poll department.

Originally closer to the pan-green camp, Ko has parted ways with the DPP since it named Pasuya Yao (姚文智) as its candidate for the 2018 Taipei mayoral election.

Ko founded the TPP last year.

If the DPP again names its own candidate in 2022, the pan-blue and the pan-green camps would rally their own supporters, leaving the TPP in a difficult situation, Wu Shih-chang said.

Nonetheless, TPP supporters might be the critical margin that determines the winner, he said.

The telephone poll, conducted by Trend Survey and Research Co from Tuesday to Thursday last week, collected 1,078 valid samples from Taipei residents aged 18 or older and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.