TAIPEI (TVBS News) — A recent public opinion survey published by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF) on Jan. 23 shows that 52% of respondents have confidence in the leadership of President-elect Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The 2024 presidential election saw Lai and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim emerge victorious. The duo will be the 16th President and Vice President of Taiwan respectively.
Of those respondents, an analysis shows that 21% have high confidence in Lai's ability to lead the country, 30.9% somewhat confident, 19.5% not very confident, 18.7% not at all confident, and 7.3% held no opinion. Unknown respondents accounted for 2.7%. In sum, 51.9% of respondents expressed confidence in Lai, while 38.2% reported having no confidence in him.
Former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui noted in a Facebook post that although only 40% of the populace voted for Lai in the election, an impressive 52% expressed confidence in his ability to guide the nation.
He went on to state that such faith amid strong political opposition is "not easy" but admits there is work to be done. He believes there should be a typical honeymoon period generally extended to new officeholders.
The survey took place from Jan. 15-17, 2024, among adults aged 20 and above nationwide. It adopted a dual-frame random sampling method; 70% landlines and 30% mobile phones, with a total valid sample of 1083 respondents – 759 via landlines and 324 via mobile phones.
The margin of error was approximately 2.98 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The survey was weighted according to the latest population census data of the Ministry of the Interior in terms of region, gender, age, and education level, and was funded by TPOF.