By KHT Staff
KAOHSIUNG — A new poll shows Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) leading Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) by 16.3 percentage points, while KMT-aligned commentators argue the race may be less settled than the topline numbers suggest.
The poll, commissioned by The Storm Media (上報) and conducted by Shanshui Public Opinion Research (山水民意調查), found Lai with 47 percent support and Ko with 30.7 percent. Another 22.3 percent of respondents were undecided. Several Taiwanese outlets, including China Times, UDN, Mirror Media, and Newtalk, reported the survey results.
Local KMT supporters argue that with more than 22 percent still undecided, Ko remains in a competitive position, and they claim Lai could easily lose support as the campaign counts down to the late November election. Those on the “Green” or DPP side say multiple polls have shown Lai is comfortably ahead, and the most recent one only backs this up.
The latest poll was conducted April 27–29 among Kaohsiung residents aged 20 and older, using both landline and mobile phone samples. It completed 2,027 valid interviews and reported a margin of error of plus or minus 2.18 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, with results weighted by district, gender, and age, according to the published methodology.
