Taipei, Jan. 9 (CNA) The gap of support ratings of the three front-runners in the upcoming presidential election is narrowing, according to the results of a recent opinion poll released on Sunday.
The telephone survey of 1,049 randomly selected eligible voters also found that ruling Kuomintang candidate Lien Chan's support rating is rising steadily after he unveiled a six-point reform package, including putting huge KMT assets into trust.
The survey was conducted by CNA between Jan. 6 and Jan. 7. The Central News Agency was commissioned by the Journalist weekly and Global Television Co. to conduct the poll.
Survey results show that if the presidential election were to take place the following day, 24 percent of the respondents said they would vote for opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Chen Shui-bian; 23 percent said they would opt for independent contender James Soong; and 22 percent threw support behind KMT's Lien.
A noteworthy finding was that as much as 24 percent said they remain undecided on whom to support in the March 18 election. Meanwhile, 4 percent said they would not go to the polls or "cast an invalid vote" to show their dissatisfaction with all the contenders.
As for the odds to win the election, Lien continued to beat the two other main rivals, with some 35 percent of those interviewed betting on Lien's victory.
Although President Lee, also KMT chairman, has endorsed Lien's bold reform package, 44 percent still said they don't think that the KMT would really put its party assets into trust after Lien wins the presidency. Only 28 percent said they believe that Lien would honor his campaign promise and 27 percent said they don't know whether Lien would keep his word.
Meanwhile, 53 percent said all of the KMT property should be put into trust; 18 percent said they support the proposal that only enterprises in which the KMT holds a more-than-50-percent stake should be put into trust; and 28 percent said they don't know.
Asked which presidential hopeful they thought to be most clean, 35 percent chose DPP's Chen; 13 percent cited Soong; and 11 percent opted for Lien.
On the three key contenders' campaign platforms on relations across the Taiwan Strait, both Lien and Soong won the support of 20 percent of the respondents; 15 percent said they are most satisfied with Chen's policy toward mainland China; 5 percent said they are dissatisfied with all the three hopefuls' platforms on cross-strait ties; 36 percent didn't answer the question. (By Sofia Wu)
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