Incumbent Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) leads Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) by 1.2 percentage points in the latest Taipei mayoral poll, 41.7 percent to 40.5 percent. The survey was released on Sept. 22 at a news conference held by Taipei Trust, the Taipei Times reported.
What did the survey find? Taipei Trust founding chairman Huang Ching-lung (黃清龍) presented the numbers alongside pollster Dai Li-an (戴立安) at a briefing that the Liberty Times reported came 67 days before the nine-in-one local elections. Shen's deficit falls within the poll's margin of error, though a gap remains on which candidate respondents expect to win. The result comes as Shen campaigns on both the air and ground fronts.
How did the candidates respond? Chiang said any number is only a reference and that a single poll would not define which districts are won or lost, in remarks carried by the Liberty Times. He said he would keep working the grassroots to win residents' approval, and he spent the morning of Sept. 22 inspecting the Dongsanshui and Xinfu markets in Wanhua. Shen said that trailing by any margin is still trailing and that, as the challenger, he must keep improving, hold on to the trust he already has and let more people get to know him. He also said it was getting harder, and that name recognition does not necessarily turn into support.
What are party figures saying? DPP city councillors said Shen had "broken out of the circle" to draw many voters who are not traditional DPP supporters, and that two more months of grassroots campaigning could let him bring down the blue camp's high wall in Taipei, the Liberty Times reported. DPP figures also said the data closely matched the mood on the ground. Kuomintang politicians dismissed the talk as self-hype.
