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President Tsai slips in polls for 100th day

President Tsai slips in polls for 100th day

President Tsai slips in polls for 100th day

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen has the support of slightly under half of the public while Premier Lin Chuan now has more critics than supporters on the eve of their 100th day in office, according to a Taiwan Thinktank opinion poll presented Friday.
Tsai and Lin were both sworn in on May 20, making Saturday August 27 their 100th day in power, traditionally a date seen as an important threshold.
The president’s approval rating stood at a relatively stable 48.5 percent, though dissatisfaction had sharply risen to 38.4 percent over the past 100 days, the Taiwan Thinktank said.
A fortnight after her inauguration, Tsai’s satisfaction level stood at 52.4 percent, while it dropped to 49.3 percent one month into her rule and to 49.1 percent around July 20.
Her disapproval ratings over the same period rose rapidly from 12.5 percent over 22.6 percent to 36 percent in late July, two months after she was sworn in. The strong rise was reportedly mostly the result of disaffection from supporters of the opposition Kuomintang, with 73 percent of them giving Tsai a negative rating.
Lin fared worse, with the new Taiwan Thinktank poll revealing he had more detractors, 41 percent, than supporters, 39.6 percent. A total of 67.2 percent of KMT supporters gave the premier bad marks, reports said.
Looking at political parties, the only group which scored higher approval than dissatisfaction ratings was Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party, with 48.7 percent saying it did a good job and 43.9 percent taking the opposite view.
Asked for which party they supported, 31 percent named the DPP, 19 percent the KMT, 15.5 percent the New Power Party and 7.1 percent the People First Party.
The main reason for the rising dissatisfaction with the government and especially for the premier’s ratings decline was the handling of the days off for workers, reports said. The Cabinet wanted to introduce a formula on August 1 by which nobody would be able to work for more than six days without taking one day off. However, some sectors, including transportation, travel agencies and media groups, voiced opposition, saying they would find it impossible to do business if the measure was applied rigorously. Lin then ordered a rethink, with the official results expected to be announced next week.
The Taiwan Thinktank commissioned the opinion poll from Trend Survey and Research Co., Ltd., which conducted it on August 21-22, resulting in 1,069 valid samples with a margin of error of 3 percent.