As campaigning heats up for Taiwan's presidential election next January, former Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, who heads a "third force" opposition party, has surged in popularity, with recent polls placing him in first and second place in the largely three-way race.
In a poll released Tuesday, organized by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, the 63-year-old physician-turned-politician of the Taiwan People's Party was the second most favored candidate in the race, with 29.1 percent of respondents expressing their support for him.
Ko trailed behind Vice President Lai Ching-te, 63, of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, who was favored by 36.5 percent of respondents.
New Taipei Mayor Hou Yu-ih, 66, of the main opposition Nationalist Party, also called the Kuomintang (KMT), came in third with 20.4 percent respondents supporting him according to the telephone poll, which was conducted last week and drew 1,080 valid responses from those aged 20 and above.
Another poll released last Friday by Taiwanese commercial television broadcasting company TVBS had Ko leading the race with 33 percent of respondents backing him, in front of Lai with 30 percent, while Hou stood at 23 percent. The TVBS poll conducted last week also drew 1,080 responses from people aged 20 or older.
The poll results came as Hou's New Taipei government came under fire for allegedly failing to urgently respond to accusations that a preschool in the northern Taiwanese city had sedated its pupils.
Meanwhile, a series of #MeToo-style sexual harassment allegations have rocked Taiwanese society over the past weeks, with accusations initially being leveled at people in the DPP before spreading to the KMT, as well as prominent figures in other circles.
Ko, who founded the TPP in August 2019, said during a trip to Japan earlier this month that he founded the party because he felt the Taiwanese people had grown tired of power struggles between the two major parties.
The upcoming election will choose the successor of President Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP, whose second four-year term expires next year. She is not eligible for re-election.
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