Mayor Chen Chu most popular among 12 politicians: poll

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) enjoys the highest popularity among the nation's top 12 political leaders, followed by Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (賴清德), according to an opinion poll released Sunday.

In the survey conducted by the Taiwan Indicators Survey Research (TISR) aimed at determining the "favorability" of politicians, Chen took the top title as in last year's poll by scoring a favorability rating of 76.5 percent, while Lai came in second with 67.9 percent.

Coming in third was President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) with 64.8 percent, followed by Premier Simon Chang (張善政) with 56.6 percent, and Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) with 48.3 percent.

Independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) received 47.7 percent, with Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) getting 46.9 percent, and Premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) receiving 45.2 percent.

Those who received lower scores include New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) with 43.1 percent, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) with 40.5 percent, Kuomintang Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) with 40.4 percent and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) with 32.3 percent.

The TISR conducted a similar survey last year in which Chen also topped the list, while Lai placed third, Tsai took sixth and Lin was seventh.

The survey was conducted among Taiwanese aged 20 and older from May 10-11 using computer-assisted telephone interviews and random-digit-dial systems. A total of 1,010 valid surveys were collected.

It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.