By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The credibility and approval ratings of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have dropped to the lowest point since his first-term inauguration in 2008, with more than 45 percent of respondents in a public opinion poll released yesterday in favor of recalling Ma.
The president’s credibility rating is now at 23.6 percent and his approval rating is at 16.5 percent, both new lows, with 71.7 percent of the respondents saying they were unsatisfied with his performance, the poll conducted by Taiwan Indicator Research Survey (TIRS) showed.
Strong discontent among the public appeared to be why 45.7 percent of those who polled said they would vote to recall Ma, while 40.7 percent disapproving of a recall and 16.7 percent saying they had no opinion.
According to TIRS general manager Tai Li-an (戴立安), the numbers were similar to a poll conducted in June 2006 when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was accused of corruption in his second term.
At the time, Tai said 47 percent of those polled supported recalling Chen, while 40.9 percent were against it.
While a motion of no confidence against the Cabinet failed to pass the legislature on Saturday, respondents’ disgruntlement appeared to remain strong, with 46.4 percent saying that Premier Sean Chen (陳?) and his Cabinet should be replaced, compared with 34.5 percent who opposed the reshuffle.
Out of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) supporters, 26.5 percent were in favor of Chen being replaced, the survey showed.
Regarding Cabinet officials in charge of economic affairs, 43 percent of respondents said they would give the officials three months to revitalize the economy, while 34.7 percent said the officials should be replaced immediately and 9.6 percent said there was no need to remove the officials.
The TIRS poll collected 1,007 valid samples on Monday and Tuesday, and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.