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Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) The ticket of former Taiwan Provincial Governor James Soong and heart surgeon Chang Chao-hsiung was viewed by 29.5 percent of respondents as most likely to win Taiwan's next presidential election in March 2000, according to survey results released on Saturday.

At the same time, 27.7 percent felt the ruling Kuomintang's ticket of Vice President Lien Chan and Premier Vincent Siew would win while 5.6 percent said they thought the ticket of Chan Shui-bian and Annette Lu fielded by the major opposition Democratic Progressive Party would be elected, the poll found.

This has been the first time that the Soong-Chang ticket has led the other contenders on this question in polls.

If the election were held now, the Soong-Chang ticket would garner 38.1 percent of public support, ahead of the 21.3 support for Chan and Lu. Lien and Siew would only receive 14 percent backing, the survey discovered.

On the question of which team is most capable of leading the country, the Soong-Chang ticket was cited by 32.9 percent of respondents, ahead of the 18.8 percent for the Lien-Siew ticket and 14 percent for the Chen-Lu ticket.

The Soong-Chang ticket also led its rivals on the issue of cross-strait relations, gathering 27.9 percent of public support. The Lien-Siew and Chen-Lu tickets received the support of 21.7 percent and 8.7 percent of respondents respectively, the poll indicated.

At the same time, about 72 percent of Taiwan's voters said they would not change their choice for president even if they felt their chances of winning were slim. Twelve percent said they would vote for another candidate if they thought their original choice had no chance of winning, the poll found.

Lu Ya-li, a political science professor at National Taiwan University, said he believes few voters would change their original choice to support another candidate to ensure a certain one won because the KMT is no longer able to manipulate voters.

Soochow University Professor Lin Chia-cheng said it is still too early to talk about such "effects" as the election is still four months away and a number of different factors could influence the outcome.

The public opinion poll, conducted by The Journalist Magazine and a cable television station on Thursday, interviewed 993 Taiwan citizens aged over 20 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent. (By Flor Wang)