Taipei, Jan. 2, (dpa/GNA) – Lai Ching-te from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) remains the frontrunner for the January 13 presidential election, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.
According to the United Daily News – which conducted the survey between December 26 and December 30 – the DPP’s candidate had 32% support, with Hou Yu-ih of the main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) on 27% and the Taiwan People’s Party’s Ko Wen-je on 21%.
Lai has also led in other opinion polls, including one released by TVBS on Monday.
The latest surveys are likely to be the last before the election. In Taiwan, a law stipulates that opinion polls are no longer allowed to be reported, spread, commented on or quoted from this Wednesday until the end of voting.
The election results are likely to influence the relationship between Taiwan and its powerful neighbour China.
China cut off all communication with Taiwan’s leadership in June 2016, one month after President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-driven DPP took office.
Tsai, re-elected in 2020, is ineligible to seek a third term.
Other parties, such as the KMT, are considered more China-friendly.
On Monday, Tsai reiterated a call for the resumption of “healthy exchanges” with China. In her New Year’s address, she said that “with sacred ballots in our hands, we will decide the future of our country.”
Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949, but China considers the self-ruled island as its territory.