With local elections on November 28, less than four weeks away, the camps of Democratic Progressive Party candidate Huang Shih-chieh and incumbent Kuomintang Mayor Chang Shan-cheng traded barbs over governing records on Wednesday. An ETtoday poll released the same day showed Chang at 47.4 percent and Huang at 36.0 percent.
According to the United Daily News, Huang told Formosa TV host Wu An-chi that Chang, after four years as mayor, should face stricter scrutiny, and that voters should not accept “seeking re-election just because nothing big went wrong.” He said he had proposed a debate on city affairs, but Chang told city councillors during questioning that it would be a waste of time. He also criticized Chang for visiting a Keelung market while, he claimed, never sweeping Taoyuan's markets.
광고 문의 · 300×250City hall hits back
Taoyuan City Government information director Lo Chu-tung responded swiftly, saying that while Huang was a legislator, three SRF (solid recovered fuel) firms were able to enter Guanyin, leaving disputes the city still has to deal with, and that Huang himself “specialized in causing big trouble” in office. He added that Huang, after more than a decade in politics, only now shows enthusiasm for market vendors, and asked what concrete projects Huang won for vendors while in office.
Chang's campaign spokesperson Chuang Kai-yu also said Huang rarely appears in Taoyuan and only visits markets at election time. These are claims each side made about the other; the United Daily News did not independently verify them, and no further rebuttal from Huang's camp appears in the reports we reviewed.
What the ETtoday poll shows
The ETtoday poll (ET Poll Cloud, October 29 to November 1, online questionnaire of residents aged 20 and over in Taoyuan's 13 districts, 1,190 valid samples, margin of error plus or minus 2.84 points at 95 percent confidence) found Chang at 47.4 percent and Huang at 36.0 percent, a gap of 11.4 points, with 15.6 percent undecided or without opinion. On who respondents think will win, Chang had 56.8 percent and Huang 30.9 percent.
Favorability stood at 49.1 percent for Chang and 37.6 percent for Huang, with 43.0 percent saying they did not know or had no opinion of Huang, suggesting lower name recognition. Chang's approval rating was 53.4 percent. This is the result of a single online survey and should not be read as a forecast. About 15 percent of voters remain undecided, so whether a debate takes place and how the camps campaign in the final weeks will matter.