TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) released a pre-election public opinion poll on Monday (Aug. 21) revealing that 43.4% of voters prefer Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to be elected, while 26.6% supported Taiwan People's Party (TPP) candidate Ko Wen-je, and 13.6% favoring Hou Yu-ih of the Kuomintang (KMT) Party.
Meanwhile, 16.3% of respondents remained undecided or did not express an opinion.
With less than five months until the presidential election, TPOF hinted at a massive shift in Taiwan's 2024 presidential election landscape, analyzing that Lai will lead Ko by 16.8 percentage points while Ko remains ahead of Hou by a further 13 points.
As most voters currently favor Lai, TPOF stressed that Lai's support rate had reached an all-time personal high of 43%, surpassing President Tsai Ing-wen's polls by 2 points in the same month in 2019 and significantly over his competitors.
Compared to last month, the latest poll indicated drastic increases in support for Lai by 7 points, a slight decrease for Ko by 1.2 points, and a sizeable drop for Hou by 6.6 points.
The poll was conducted from Aug. 14 to 15, surveying adults aged 20 and up nationwide through landline phone numbers and mobile phones at random.