William Lai again voted best-performing local leader in ‘CommonWealth’ survey

Staff writer, with CNA





Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has maintained his place as the best-performing head of a local government and also has the highest public approval rating, according to an annual survey published by CommonWealth Magazine yesterday.

In the performance ratings, Lai scored 79.06 out of 100 points, followed by Lienchiang County Commissioner Liu Tseng-ying (劉增應) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), DPP Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), DPP Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) and DPP Penghu County Commissioner Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復).

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent who has been in the media spotlight since his election in November last year, was ranked ninth among the 22 city and county heads, according to the survey.

Ko said the survey indicated that there was still room for him to improve.

New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT fell in the rankings from 15th last year to 20th this year in the wake of the explosion at a water park in the city in June, which left 11 people dead and hundreds injured.

The performance rankings are based on public opinion and the views of experts, comprising 80 percent and 20 percent respectively. In the public approval segment of the survey, Lai, who has been boycotting city council meetings for eight months in protest against alleged vote buying by the Tainan council speaker in last year’s local elections, received a public approval rating of 88.1 percent, the highest among all the city and county heads.

However, that marked a 2.4 percentage point decline from last year, which the magazine attributed to strong public opposition to a rail project in the city. The survey was conducted before the sharp escalation of dengue fever in the city over the past two weeks, the magazine said.

Lai said he appreciated the support of Tainan residents and that the poll showed his city government team had not relaxed its efforts in his second term.

In other cities and counties, some newly elected local government heads gained significantly higher public approval ratings than their predecessors, the magazine said.

Keelung Mayor Lin You-chang of the DPP’s (林右昌) approval rating was 53.3 percent, almost twice as high his predecessor, Chang Tung-jung (張通榮), the magazine said.

Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱) of the KMT and Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the DPP, whose performance rankings were 16th and 17th, respectively, also had higher public approval ratings than their predecessors, the magazine said.