Taipei, Sept. 13 (CNA) Outlying Lienchiang and Kinmen counties have come out on top in a national poll of residents' satisfaction with their city or county governments, with Chiayi City and Taipei at the bottom of the list, according to CommonWealth Magazine, which has conducted the poll since 2010.
Releasing its 2016 poll results, the magazine said Tuesday that opposition Kuomintang politicians seemed to have made small gains in their popularity, with Lienchiang Magistrate Liu Tseng-ying (劉增應) leading the pack of 22 with a score of 80.11 and Taitung Magistrate Justin Huang (黃健庭) rising two notches from last year to rank 8th (64.41).
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party's Chen Chu (陳菊), mayor of Kaohsiung, retained her third place from last year, while Lai "God" Ching-te (賴清德) of Tainan fell from top to fourth place in the rankings, scoring close to each other with 69.66 and 69.48 points, respectively.
A surprising fall from grace was suffered by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), whose ranking plummeted from ninth last year to 21st, the last but one, this year. At the bottom of the list is Chiayi Mayor Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲). Ko and Twu scored only 49.36 and 43.60, respectively.
Fresher and younger faces surged in their popularity rankings: Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅 ) rose from 18th to 10th (61.73), Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) from near-bottom 21st to 12th (61.37), and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) managed to climb two notches from 15th to 13th (61.10), to rank third among the six municipalities, following only seasoned DPP politicians Chen Chu and Lai.
Other local government heads and their rankings and scores include Hualien Magistrate Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁), 5th (66.96), Yilan Magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢), 6th (65.66), Pingtung Magistrate Pan Men-an (潘孟安), 7th (64.70), Penghu Magistrate Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復), 9th (63.08), and Chiayi Magistrate Chang Hwa-kuan (張花冠), 11th ( 61.58).
Ranked from 14th to 20th are, in that order, Yunlin Magistrate Lee Chin-yung (李進勇), 58.86; Nantou Magistrate Lin Ming-chen (林明溱), 58.22; Hsinchu Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳), 56.63; Changhua Magistrate Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), 55.04; Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), 55.01; New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), 51.49; and Miaoli Magistrate Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌), 50.59.
The magazine conducted the poll based on a weighted proportion of 80 percent public opinion and 20 percent expert views. Members of the public were asked five questions regarding the city or county's economic, environmental protection, administrative, cultural and educational, and social welfare policies.
Four civic groups, including a small enterprise association and a community college promotional association, were commissioned to gather the views of 647 experts.
The magazine said a total of 14,869 valid samples were collected from among members of the public aged 20 or older, with each city or county providing between 550 and 1,010 respondents, from July 13 to Aug. 19.
The survey had a confidence level of 95 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.08-4.18 percentage points. Lienchiang County in offshore Matsu was an exception -- it's margin of error was 6.88 percent because of a small pool of only 203 samples.
(By S.C. Chang)
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