Young voters favor Ko for president, survey suggests

INDEPENDENT: Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said that he has not especially tried to appeal to young voters, adding that young people were the nation’s hope

By Ann Maxon / Staff reporter





Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is the most popular presidential candidate among voters aged 20 to 39, followed by Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), a poll released yesterday by the Congress Party Alliance showed.

When asked who they would support as a presidential candidate, 28.1 percent of the respondents said Ko, 15.4 percent said Han of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and 13.2 percent said Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the poll found.

They were followed by Hon Hai Precision Industry chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) at 11 percent, former premier William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP at 5.9 percent, former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT at 2.4 percent and KMT Legislator Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at 1.7 percent.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je interacts with city mascot Bravo the Bear at an event in Taipei on Saturday. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

When asked to choose between Tsai and Lai, who are vying for the DPP’s nomination, 36 percent said Lai, while 30 percent said Tsai.

When asked to choose between Han of the KMT and registered candidates competing in the party’s primary, 24.8 percent chose Han. He was followed by Gou at 19.9 percent, Wang at 14 percent and Chu at 12.3 percent.

The poll also found that half of young voters do not align themselves with a political party.

Among those who did, a majority backed the KMT at 17.4 percent, followed by the DPP at 16 percent and the New Power Party at 14.4 percent.

The poll found that 33.3 percent of respondents voted for Tsai in the 2016 presidential election, 30.2 percent did not or could not vote, 8.8 percent voted for Chu and 5.2 percent voted for People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).

The survey of 1,072 people was conducted via cellphone interviews from April 26 to Sunday last week and was weighted to fit the population profile. It has a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.

When asked whether his popularity among young people was due to his attendance at their events, Ko, an independent, said he has not especially endeavored to win young people’s support.

However, young people are the nation’s hope, Ko said, adding that he believes that they would do their best if they had hope and were given the opportunity.

“I am not a [typical] politician,” Ko said, adding that he differs from others because he began his political career at the age of 55, and having spent more than 30 years in another career, his behaviors and thoughts cannot be easily changed or distorted by politics.

Additional reporting by Lee I-chia